How many equity funds beat their index each year, 2021–25

The count

In 2024, 29 of 30 large-cap funds beat the Nifty 100 price index. In 2025, only 65 of 184 funds benchmarked to the broad market beat the Nifty 500. The share of equity funds that beat an index is not a constant of nature; it swings from nearly everyone to about a third within a year.

For each calendar year from 2021 to 2025 we took every Direct plan, Growth option fund that had a NAV in the last days of that year and the one before, worked out its calendar-year return from NAVs, and compared it with the price index for its category: the Nifty 100 for large cap, Nifty Midcap 150 for mid cap, Nifty Smallcap 250 for small cap, and the Nifty 500 for flexi cap, multi cap, large & mid cap, ELSS, focused and value funds.

Funds ahead of the index, by year

Each cell shows funds that beat the index, out of the funds counted, with the index's calendar-year price return underneath.

The "other categories" column pools six categories that share one benchmark in our data, so its counts are larger. Closed-ended ELSS series, which no longer take money, are left out.

What the pattern says

Over the five years, most funds beat the price index in three of the four groups. About two-thirds of broad-market fund-years (67%) and 70% of large-cap fund-years did. Mid cap was the exception at 47%.

No year was uniform. The same year can be easy for one group and hard for another. In 2023 the large-cap index rose 20.0% and 27 of 30 funds beat it, while in the same year the Smallcap 250 rose 48.1% and only 5 of 23 small-cap funds matched it.

Falling markets favoured the funds. In the only two years when an index fell, the Smallcap 250 in 2022 (-3.6%) and 2025 (-6.0%), 19 of 21 and 22 of 29 small-cap funds beat it. The pattern across all the cells is mixed, so we would not call it a rule; mid-cap funds beat their index in 13 of 22 in 2022 and in just 8 of 29 in 2025.

2025 was the hardest year for the broad group: 35% beat the Nifty 500, against 80% in 2021, 80% in 2023 and 89% in 2024. The latest shift is also visible in our calendar-year table of category returns, where large cap led for the first time.

The price-index handicap

A price index tracks prices only. A fund's NAV also includes dividends from the companies it owns, so a fund that merely matched the market's total return would show a higher figure than the price index in any calendar year. That flatters every count above. The benchmark of record for most funds is a Total Return Index, which is above the price index every year, so some of the funds counted here as winners would not beat it. We use the price indices because they are the ones whose daily history we hold for these years.

Two more cautions:

• Survivorship. Funds merged or closed before today are not in the list. That also lifts the scores.
• Beating an index is not the aim. A fund that trails its index by a point may have had a calmer ride. See upside and downside capture by category and positive alpha by category.

For a longer view of the same question, see large-cap funds against the Nifty 50 over five years and active versus passive in the long run.

What it does and does not tell you

It tells you that "most funds beat the index" and "most funds trail the index" have both been true within five years, depending on the year and the category. It does not tell you which funds will beat it next year, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any fund. The screener shows each fund's return over any window you choose.