How many stocks do equity funds hold? From 11 to 255

The spread

The AMCs' monthly portfolio disclosures let us count the stocks each fund holds. Taking 332 actively managed equity funds, Direct plan, Growth option, and leaving out index funds and sector or thematic funds, the median fund holds 63.5 stocks.

The extremes are far apart. Quant Focused Fund lists 11 equity holdings. Bandhan Small Cap Fund lists 255, and Nippon India Small Cap Fund 254.

The counts come from each house's latest disclosure, 31 August 2026 for most. They are lines in the equity holdings list, so a house that reports derivatives hedges or overseas lines separately can look different from one that does not. Funds whose listed holdings add up to under 60% of assets were left out, since their list is incomplete.

By category

Two patterns stand out.

Smaller companies mean more names. Small-cap funds hold the most stocks and the lowest share in their top ten, at 25.4%. The least any small-cap fund lists is 56. That fits the market they work in: a universe of hundreds of companies, each too small to carry a big weight without the fund struggling to buy or sell it.

Category rules shape the count. Focused funds may hold at most 30 stocks under SEBI's category definition, and the median here is 29. The table's one oddity, a focused-fund maximum of 31, probably reflects how a fund reports its holdings rather than a breach; it is one fund.

Count and concentration are different things

A fund can hold many stocks and still be concentrated. Its top-ten share says more about that than the count does.

In this data, the average large-cap fund puts 46.4% of its money in its ten largest holdings with a median of 52 stocks. The average multi-cap fund holds 77.5 stocks but only 27.8% in its top ten. A large-cap fund must keep at least 80% of its money in the 100 biggest companies, and the top of that list is heavy.

At the other end, the four funds with the shortest lists are all from one house, each with 20 or fewer lines: Quant Focused (11), Quant Large Cap (16), Quant Large & Mid Cap (19) and Quant Value (20). For comparison, the median large & mid cap fund holds 69.5.

How the whole set breaks down

Of the 332 funds:

• 40 hold 30 stocks or fewer
• 263 hold between 31 and 99
• 29 hold 100 or more

So the broad middle is wide: 193 funds, or 58%, hold between 40 and 80 stocks. The tails are small. The 100-plus group is 29 funds: 8 multi cap, 7 small cap, 5 large & mid cap, 3 mid cap, 3 flexi cap, and one each of large cap, ELSS and dividend yield.

What this does not tell you

A bigger count is not better diversification. Past some point, extra holdings of 0.1% each barely move a fund's result. They can reflect a manager's wish to hold many small positions, not any additional spread of risk.

The count is a snapshot. It moves from month to month, and a manager can add or trim dozens of stocks in a quarter.

It says nothing about quality or returns. None of this suggests a number of stocks to look for, or any fund to buy.

Where to go from here

To see how crowded the same names are, read how often the biggest flexi-cap funds hold the same stocks and how concentrated small-cap funds are. The mutual fund overlap guide covers what to do when two of your funds own the same shares.