Mutual fund factsheets: what normal looks like in 2026

What a factsheet is

Every fund house publishes a factsheet each month: a few pages per scheme with its returns, costs, risk measures and portfolio. It is the most detailed regular disclosure a fund makes, and it is free on every AMC's website.

The problem is that almost every number on it means little on its own. A standard deviation of 14% is high for a large-cap fund and low for a small-cap one. A turnover ratio of 60% is ordinary for one style and heavy for another. Reading a factsheet well is mostly a matter of knowing what to compare each number with.

To give a sense of what "normal" looks like, the ranges in this post are for flexi-cap funds (Direct Growth plans), from our own data: the latest expense ratios disclosed (August and September 2026), portfolios disclosed for 31 August 2026, and risk figures computed from daily NAVs over the three years to 1 October 2026. "Low" and "high" mark the 10th and 90th percentiles; for the worst fall, "low" is the shallower end.

1. The basics: objective, benchmark, manager, size

The first block names the fund's category, its investment objective, its benchmark, the fund managers and their tenure, and the AUM (assets under management).

• The benchmark is the yardstick every return on the page should be judged against. Make sure it fits the category: a flexi-cap fund should be measured against a broad index like the Nifty 500 or BSE 500, not the Nifty 50.
• Manager tenure tells you whose record the returns belong to. A five-year return earned mostly by a previous manager says little about the current one.
• AUM matters mostly at the extremes. A very small fund may struggle to keep costs down; a very large small-cap fund can find it hard to buy and sell without moving prices.

2. Costs: expense ratio and exit load

The total expense ratio (TER) is listed for both the Direct and the Regular plan. It is deducted from the NAV daily, so returns are already net of it.

Check that you are reading the TER of the plan you actually hold. The Regular plan of an equity fund typically costs about 1.2 points a year more; our post on what that gap costs in rupees puts numbers on it. The exit load section says what you pay to redeem early, usually 1% within the first year for equity funds.

3. Returns, and how to read them

Factsheets show point-to-point returns (one, three, five and ten years and since launch) for the fund and its benchmark, and often what a ₹10,000 investment or a monthly SIP would have grown to.

• Returns over a year are annualised (CAGR); returns under a year are absolute. Annualised figures can be compared across periods; absolute ones cannot.
• Point-to-point figures depend heavily on the start and end dates. One strong or weak month at either end can flatter or hurt a fund. Rolling returns show how consistent the fund has been across many periods.
• Look at the fund against its benchmark, not against the best fund you have heard of. A fund that trails its benchmark over five years after fees has not done its job.
• Direct and Regular plans have different returns because their costs differ. Use the figures for the plan you hold.

4. Risk measures

This block is where most investors stop reading. It is worth the extra minute.

• Standard deviation measures how much the fund's returns swing. Higher means a bumpier ride, in both directions.
• Beta measures how much the fund moves with its benchmark. A beta of 0.9 means that, on average, when the index moved 10% the fund moved about 9%.
• Sharpe ratio is return earned above a risk-free rate per unit of volatility. Higher is better, but only comparisons within one category and one method mean anything.
• Worst fall (maximum drawdown) is not on every factsheet, but it answers the question investors actually feel: how much would I have been down at the worst point?

AMCs calculate these with their own conventions, often from monthly returns and with a money-market rate as the risk-free rate, so their figures will not match ours exactly. Compare like with like. The risk-adjusted returns guide goes deeper.

5. The portfolio

The second half of the factsheet lists what the fund owns: the top holdings, the sector split, the market-cap split and the cash level. For debt funds it adds yield to maturity, average maturity, modified duration and credit ratings.

• Concentration. The weight of the top ten stocks tells you how much the fund depends on a few calls. At 45% a few stocks decide the result; at 27% the fund looks more like an index.
• Overlap. Compare the top holdings with your other funds. Two funds whose top ten are mostly the same companies do not diversify each other.
• Turnover is the share of the portfolio bought and sold over a year. Trading costs are not in the TER, so a fund with high turnover is paying a cost that never appears in the expense ratio. The portfolio turnover guide explains how it is calculated.
• Cash. A large cash position in an equity fund is a decision by the manager, and it will hold the fund back in a rising market.

A five-minute checklist

1. Is the benchmark right for the category, and has the fund beaten it over five years after costs?
2. What does your plan cost, and how does that compare with the category?
3. Has the current manager been in charge for most of the record you are relying on?
4. Are the risk numbers in line with peers, or is the fund taking much more risk for its return?
5. How concentrated is the portfolio, how much does it trade, and how much does it overlap with what you already own?

Our factsheet guide covers each section in more detail, and every fund page in the screener shows these figures side by side with the fund's category.

This post is for education only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any fund. Past returns do not predict future returns.