Fund managers struggle to beat key indices as market soars

Fund managers have been advising investors not to keep their return expectation higher

India’s popular equity mutual fund (MF) schemes are increasingly coming under pressure when it comes to benchmark-beating returns for investors.

With the benchmark indices soaring 20 per cent this year, few actively managed schemes have managed such a return. Those that have include HDFC Equity and HDFC Top 200, both managed by Prashant Jain, chief investment officer of HDFC MF. The margin of outperformance is, however, only 50 basis points.

Fund managers have over the past year been advising investors not to keep their return expectation higher. Further, on several occasions, they stressed the fact that the phase of generating