Large-cap funds vs the Nifty 50: 22 of 27 won over 5 years

The number

Over the five years to 30 September 2026, 22 of 27 large-cap funds beat the Nifty 50. The comparison uses each fund's Direct plan, Growth option, and our estimate of what the index returned with dividends reinvested: 6.49% a year.

The median fund returned 8.42% a year, about 1.9 percentage points ahead.

Every fund figure here is a compounded annual return computed from the fund's own daily NAV history, to the NAV of 30 September 2026. Only funds with a full five-year record are counted. That leaves 27 of the 35 large-cap funds in the category.

Which Nifty 50 figure to compare against

A fund's NAV includes the dividends its holdings pay. The Nifty 50 price index does not. Comparing the two flatters the fund by roughly the index's dividend yield, which averaged 1.29% over these five years.

Our database has NSE's daily price index and its dividend yield, but not the official Total Return Index (TRI). So we estimated the TRI by adding each day's dividend yield back to the price return. The estimate is close to the real thing, not identical. Three benchmarks, for five years to 30 September 2026:

The index-fund row is a useful check. It is what passive investors actually got after costs, and it sits 0.39 points below our estimated TRI. That gap is about what fees and cash drag should cost.

SEBI asks large-cap funds to benchmark against the Nifty 100, not the Nifty 50. Against the Nifty 100's estimated total return, 20 of 27 still came out ahead.

By how much

The margins over the estimated Nifty 50 total return were not small. Twelve funds beat it by 2 points a year or more, and seven by 3 points or more.

The five funds below the line were Union Largecap (6.44%), PGIM India, UTI, LIC MF and Axis. Eight funds in all were less than 1 point ahead, or behind.

Shorter and longer windows

The five-year result is not a one-off, but it is not constant either.

• Three years: all 30 funds with a three-year record beat the estimated Nifty 50 total return of 6.18% a year. The median returned 9.16%.
• One year: 32 of 33 funds lost less than the index's estimated −6.91%. The median fund was down 3.42%.
• Ten years: only 13 of 22 beat the estimated 11.54% a year, and the median of 11.71% was barely ahead.

A large part of the recent margin comes from the last twelve months, when the Nifty 50 fell further than most large-cap portfolios. Over a decade, the typical fund roughly matched the index.

What this does not tell you

It counts only the survivors. Funds that were merged or closed over these five years are not in the list, and they were rarely the best performers. The real hit rate is probably lower.

The benchmark is an estimate. Our TRI adds back the published dividend yield day by day. The official TRI can differ by a few tenths of a point a year.

Past margins do not carry forward. A fund that beat the index for five years can lag it for the next five. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any fund.

Where to go from here

The large-cap fund page lists every fund in the category with its current numbers, and the screener sorts them any way you like.

For why a passive fund is a fair yardstick, read active vs passive investing. For a longer view of the same funds, see what rolling returns show for large caps. And the Nifty 50's P/E at 19.2 explains how far the index itself has fallen.