346 of 546 equity funds are down over a year, up from 196

The number

Of the 546 equity funds with a full year of NAVs to 3 November 2026, 346 are down over the year. That is 63.4%. On 30 September the same count was 196 of 529, or 37.1%. In five weeks, 150 more funds are in the red on a one-year view.

The depth of the losses grew too. 129 funds (23.6%) are down more than 5% and 10 are down more than 10%. At the other end, 51 funds (9.3%) are up 10% or more, against 105 on 30 September. Each fund is counted once, through its Direct plan, Growth option, and only if it has existed for the whole year. Index funds and ETFs are left out.

The market did not fall. The base rose.

October was not a bad month for equities: the Nifty 50 rose 5.26%, from 22,620.45 on 30 September to 23,810.85 on 3 November. Yet the one-year number for the index hardly moved:

The reason is the comparison date. A one-year return divides today's level by the level a year ago. Between 30 September 2025 and 3 November 2025 the three indices rose 4.68%, 5.60% and 4.45% respectively, so the starting line moved up by about as much as the October rebound added to the Nifty 50. The result: the Nifty 50's one-year figure improved by half a point, while the mid and small caps, which fell in October (-1.57% and -4.14% from 30 September to 3 November), swung from gains to losses.

This is the arithmetic of a trailing window, not a change in what any fund did. A fund whose NAV did not move at all over five weeks still shows a worse one-year figure if its starting point a year ago was higher.

By category

Two points stand out.

• Large caps and ELSS are almost uniformly negative. 30 of 33 large-cap funds are down, as 29 of 33 were on 30 September. Large-cap funds track an index that is down 7.58% over the year, so there is little room for a fund to be positive. ELSS funds, which hold a lot of large caps, are in the same position: 45 of 49.
• The mid and small-cap flip is the whole story of the change. On 30 September just one of 62 mid and small-cap funds was down over a year. Now 25 of 62 are: 18 of 31 mid caps and 7 of 31 small caps. Small caps still have the highest share of funds in the green, 24 of 31.

Fund counts differ slightly from the earlier post because more funds now have a full year of history.

Sectoral and thematic funds

Of the 232 sectoral and thematic funds with a one-year record, 134 (58%) are down and 98 are up. The range is wide: the best is up 61.2% and the worst down 18.8%. It is a poor category to summarise with a single number. Our sectoral and thematic fund scorecard covers it theme by theme.

What to take from it

• A one-year return is a snapshot of two dates. Both the end date and the start date matter. When the start date drops out of a rally, the number can worsen without the fund doing anything.
• Check a longer window. The three-year and five-year columns on a fund page, or rolling returns, are less sensitive to one starting date.
• Compare with the category, not with zero. In a year when the Nifty 50 is down 7.58%, a fund that is down 3% has beaten its index. Use the screener to sort a category by one-year return.