Nearly 38.64 per cent of 298 open-ended equity diversified mutual funds in India outperformed their respective benchmarks in March 2025, a report said on Monday. The assets under management (AUM) of equity mutual funds — excluding sectoral and thematic funds –rose by 7.68 per cent, growing from Rs 23.12 lakh crore in February to Rs 24.90 lakh crore in March, according to the report by PL Wealth Management, the wealth management arm of PL Capital.
Among the different fund categories, large cap funds stood out as the best performers. About 71.88 per cent of large cap schemes managed to beat their benchmark — the Nifty 50 TRI — during the month. Large and mid-cap funds followed next, with 58.06 per cent of funds outperforming their benchmark — the Nifty LargeMidcap 250 TRI.
Mid-cap funds also showed strong performance, with 51.72 per cent of schemes beating the Nifty Midcap 150 TRI benchmark, the report said. On the other hand, small cap funds had the weakest showing, with only 10 per cent of the funds outperforming their benchmark, the Nifty Smallcap 250 TRI.
Other categories like flexi cap funds, focused funds, and value/contra/dividend yield funds showed moderate performances, with outperformance rates ranging between 27 per cent and 37 per cent. Meanwhile, earlier report by PL Wealth Management said that more than half of India’s equity mutual funds managed to outperform their respective benchmarks in February.
The previous report, which analysed 294 open-ended equity diversified funds, revealed that 54.08 per cent of the schemes delivered better returns than their benchmarks during the month. Among the different categories, small-cap funds emerged as the best performers in February. Nearly 79.31 per cent of small-cap schemes beat the Nifty Smallcap 250 benchmark — making them the top-performing category for the month.
Focused funds also delivered strong returns, with 67.86 per cent outperforming their respective benchmark during the same month. Large and mid-cap funds were not far behind, with 65.63 per cent of the schemes exceeding the returns of the Nifty LargeMidcap 250 benchmark in February, the report said.
