196 of 529 equity funds are down over the past year

The number

Of the 529 equity funds with a full year of NAVs to 30 September 2026, 196 lost money over the year. That is 37.1%.

Most of the losses were small. 58 funds were down more than 5%, and only 7 more than 10%. At the other end, 105 funds gained 10% or more.

Each fund is counted once, through its Direct plan, Growth option, and only if it existed for the whole year. Index funds and ETFs are left out, as are closed-ended ELSS series.

Where the losses were

The pattern follows company size almost exactly.

29 of 33 large-cap funds lost money; of the 62 mid-cap and small-cap funds, one did (HDFC Small Cap, down 1.76%).

The reason is the market underneath. Over the same year the Nifty 50 fell an estimated 6.91% with dividends reinvested (8.09% on its price alone), and the Nifty 500 an estimated 1.82%. NSE's Midcap 150 and Smallcap 250 rose, by an estimated 4.71% and 7.36%.

Leaving out the sector and theme funds, 115 of the 301 diversified funds were down.

Themes: consumption and technology down, pharma up

The 228 sectoral and thematic funds split by what they hold. Matching on the fund's name:

• Consumption and FMCG: 17 of 21 funds were down. The worst was ICICI Prudential FMCG, down 18.33%, the biggest one-year loss of any equity fund.
• Technology and digital: 8 of 11 were down, led by HDFC Technology at −13.47% and Tata Digital India at −12.46%.
• Pharma and healthcare: all 17 were up, by between 9.46% and 29.80%.

The single best equity fund over the year was an international one: Nippon India Taiwan Equity, up 121.39%.

The seven funds down more than 10%

Six of the seven are sector or theme funds. The seventh, Franklin India Focused Equity, holds a concentrated portfolio of up to 30 stocks.

What this does not tell you

A losing year is normal for equity funds. One year is the shortest period worth quoting and the noisiest. Over three years, 10 of the 404 equity funds with a record returned less than 5% a year, and only two lost money. Nine of the ten are sector or theme funds.

It says nothing about what comes next. A category that fell in one year can lead in the next.

These are lump-sum returns. Someone investing monthly bought more units at lower prices during the year and has a different result. None of this is advice to buy or sell any fund.

Where to go from here

The screener sorts every fund by one-year return, and the sectoral and thematic page covers the theme funds.

For context: the Nifty 50's P/E at 19.2 shows what the large-cap fall has done to valuations, and FII vs DII in September 2026 shows who was selling. For every category's longer record, see the equity category scorecard.