Large caps +4.3% in a month, small caps -3.2%

The same funds, three clocks

The same funds can look strong or weak depending on the window you pick. This post lines up four windows for every equity category: one month, three months, six months and the calendar year so far. Each figure is the median return of the Direct plan, Growth option funds in the category, from NAVs to 2–3 November 2026. Index funds and ETFs are not included. Returns are absolute (not annualised), since all four windows are a year or shorter.

The order flips as the window lengthens

Read the table by column and the leaders change.

• One month: large cap is first (+4.3%) and small cap last (-3.2%). All 35 large-cap funds were up; only 1 of 36 small-cap funds was. Mid cap sat in between at -0.2%, with 10 of 34 funds up.
• Three months: every category is negative. The shallowest median is small cap at -3.6% and the deepest mid cap at -6.2%. Large cap at -3.8% is close to the Nifty 50's own -3.89% over the same stretch (24,774.30 on 3 August to 23,810.85 on 3 November).
• Six months and year to date: small cap is first by a wide margin, +6.3% and +8.8%. Large cap, first over one month, is among the weakest year to date at -4.6%.

So the category that did worst over the last month is the one that has done best since the start of the year, and the reverse for large caps. Neither reading is wrong; they measure different slices of the same path.

Most funds are up over a month, almost none over three

Over one month, 404 of 593 equity funds (68.1%) were up. Over three months only 41 (6.9%) were, and 29 of those 41 are sectoral or thematic funds. Year to date, 232 of 556 funds with a full record (41.7%) were up.

The three-month window is the cleanest picture of the recent past. It starts on 3 August: the Nifty Midcap 150 is now 8.09% below its 3 August close and the Nifty Smallcap 250 is 6.08% below. For the sessions that drove the rebound, see our recap of the Nifty 50 since 22 October.

The spread inside a category

A median hides the range. In small cap, one-month returns ran from -8.9% to 0.0%. In sectoral and thematic funds they ran from -22.9% to +11.1%, a 34-point spread inside a single "category", because it mixes technology, pharma, PSU, defence and consumption funds that have little in common. Among large caps the funds were bunched between +1.7% and +5.6%, which is what a category of near-identical benchmark-hugging portfolios should look like.

How to use a table like this

1. Match the window to your horizon. A one-month return says almost nothing about a ten-year goal.
2. Do not extrapolate. A category that fell this month is not due to rise, and one that rose is not due to fall. These are trailing numbers.
3. Look at the longer record before the shorter one. The category returns scorecard for October shows one-, three- and five-year figures, and rolling vs trailing five-year returns by category shows why a single end date can mislead.
4. Check the fund, not just the category. The screener lets you filter any category by the window you care about.