Mutual Fund's biggest names lag Nifty returns in first half of 2018

Barring one, the top 10 schemes in asset size have given negative returns in the first half of 2018. Spike in volatility and churn in holdings to comply with new categorisation norms are seen as the reasons for this.

The average return for the top schemes in this period has been -4.1 per cent, while Nifty has gained 2.7 per cent. Among the worst-performers are HDFC Equity Fund (managed by Prashant Jain) and HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities (Chirag Setalvad), which also happen to be the biggest schemes with assets of over Rs 200 billion each.

Axis Long Term Equity (Jinesh Gopani) is the only fund to have delivered a positive return in the first half, though it still lagged the Nifty. The poor scorecard of actively managed funds has raised the question of whether investors are better off moving to low-cost exchange traded funds. To be sure, six months is too short a period to judge a scheme or the fund manager.