Most equity mutual funds underperform in last 12 months, says report

The SPIVA scorecard also revealed that 34% of the composite bond funds underperformed S&P BSE India bond index over one year

In terms of returns to investors, most of the equity focused mutual funds have underperformed their respective benchmark S&P BSE indices, for the one year ended December last year, says a report.

The findings are a part of S&P Dow Jones Indices' scorecard SPIVA, which tracks the performance of actively managed Indian mutual funds against their benchmarks over one-year, three-year, five-year and 10-year periods.

For the one-year ended December 29, about 59.4 per cent of large-cap equity funds and 72.1 per cent of mid and small-cap funds underperformed their respective indices.

The SPIVA scorecard also revealed that 34 per cent of the composite bond funds underperformed S&P BSE India bond index over one year.

Meanwhile, 53 per cent of the equity large-cap funds underperformed the S&P BSE 100 benchmark index over the three-year period, while 80 per cent of mid/small-cap funds underperformed S&P BSE MidCap index.

"As of December-end 2007, there were 127 large-cap equity funds available for investment. Out of these 127 funds, 38 funds either merged or liquidated over the 10-year period ending December 29, 2017, resulting in a survivorship rate of 70.08 per cent" said Akash Jain, associate director, global research and design, Asia Index.

"Another 30 funds underperformed the S&P BSE 100 which led to a total of 53.5 per cent of the funds underperforming the index," he added.

Asia Index is a 50-50 partnership between S&P Dow Jones Indices and domestic bourse BSE.

Besides, most of the government bond funds underperformed S&P BSE India Government Bond Index over three, five and 10-year periods.