These equity schemes never offered negative returns in last five years

Can equity mutual fund schemes offer positive returns year after year? Can they avoid a negative patch in a year even when the market is bleeding and losing money? ETMutualFunds decided to check the data to find out the answers to these often-asked questions. We were in for a pleasant surprise. Around 10 equity schemes never gave negative returns in any year in the last five years. ETMutualFunds looked at the yearly performance of 180 equity schemes that have been around for the last five years.

We considered the five-year horizon as Sebi introduced the recategorisation and rationalisation of mutual funds in 2018. We considered equity categories such as large cap, mid cap, large & mid cap, small cap, ELSS, multi cap, focused funds, value & contra fund categories. We considered yearly returns starting from 2018 to 2022. We did not consider the flexi cap category as it has just completed three years.

These 10 schemes were from different equity fund categories. Four large cap schemes never posted negative returns in the last five years. Two value, one contra, ELSS, multi cap, and small cap schemes also offered positive returns every year between 2018 and 2022.


Canara Robeco Bluechip Equity Fund and HDFC Top 100 Fund, two of the largest schemes in the large cap category based on assets managed, never posted negative returns in the last five years. Both the schemes manage assets of more than Rs 10,000 crore.


Edelweiss Large Cap Fund never gave negative returns in the last five years. JM Large Cap Fund, one of the smallest scheme in the large cap category based on assets managed, never posted negative returns since 2018.

Union Value Discovery Fund and LIC MF Long Term Value Fund, two of the smallest schemes in the value fund category based on assets managed, offered positive returns in the last five years. The schemes manage assets of Rs 172.18 crore and Rs 92.32 crore respectively.

Kotak India EQ Contra Fund, the only contra fund in the list, never offered negative returns in the last five years.

Tata Small Cap Fund, the only small cap scheme in the list, never posted negative returns. The scheme manages assets of more than Rs 5,000 crore.

ICICI Prudential ELSS Tax Saver Fund and ICICI Prudential Multicap Fund, two schemes from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, never posted negative returns in the last five years. These two schemes are from the ELSS and multi cap category respectively.

Note, this is not a recommendation. This idea behind this exercise was just to find equity schemes that have never offered negative returns in the five years. One should not make investment or redemption decisions based on this exercise.

One should always consider important factors such as goals, investment horizons, and risk appetite while choosing schemes to invest.

If you are looking for recommendations, see:
Best tax saving mutual funds or ELSS to invest in 2023
Best large cap mutual funds to invest in 2023
Best small cap mutual funds to invest in 2023
Best value mutual funds to invest in 2023