Portfolio turnover in equity funds: a median of 51%

The number

The median diversified equity fund turned over 51% of its portfolio in the year to 31 August 2026. Read as a holding period, that is an average stock kept for about two years.

The middle half of funds ran from 35% to 90%. 57 funds reported 100% or more, the equivalent of replacing the whole portfolio at least once in the year, and 41 reported less than 25%.

The figures are the funds' own, as their fund houses report them: 245 from the monthly portfolio disclosures, and 39 from the factsheets of five houses (Aditya Birla Sun Life, Axis, DSP, HSBC and NJ) whose disclosures give only a month's figure or none. The two sources never overlap, so each fund has one figure, a trailing twelve-month percentage. All are for 31 August 2026 except three Quantum funds, already reporting for 30 September.

The funds are Direct plan, Growth option, open-ended and at least a year old, with sectoral and thematic funds left out: 284 funds from 41 fund houses. Sixteen eligible funds report no figure, and one reported figure is left out (see below).

By category

Contra funds (3) are left out for size; their median was 64.0%.

The categories differ less than the funds inside them. Medians run from 39% to 68%, while in every category the top of the middle half is at least twice its bottom. Category is a weak guide to how much a fund trades; the fund house is a much stronger one.

The busiest and the quietest

Two houses fill the top of the list. Samco's four funds with a figure reported between 231% and 1,533%. Quant's nine reported between 101% and 748%, with a median of 354%; seven of them are above 300%. A turnover of 1,533% means the portfolio was replaced about fifteen times in the year, so the average position was held for less than a month.

At the bottom, HDFC's ten diversified funds had a median of 13.7%, and four of them are in the eight lowest. Navi's index-tracking tax saver is low for the obvious reason: it follows the Nifty 50.

Why some big funds look so still

Many Indian factsheets define turnover as the lower of a fund's purchases and its sales over the year, divided by its average assets. A fund that receives heavy inflows and buys with them, while selling little, can therefore report a very low figure. It measures how much the fund sold and replaced, not how much it bought.

That matters when reading the bottom of the table. On that definition, HDFC Mid Cap Fund's 2.70% means the smaller of its buying and its selling came to 2.70% of its assets in the year. It does not mean the fund stood still.

Trading, size and cost

Funds that trade more charge more, and tend to be smaller. Part of that gap is the trading itself: since 1 April 2026 the expense ratio filed with AMFI includes brokerage, transaction costs and statutory levies on top of the fund house's base fee, so a fund that trades more reports a higher ratio for that reason alone. The guide to what a fund really costs breaks the ratio into its parts. Average assets are AMFI's for July to September 2026; expense ratios are the latest filings, from 29 September to 6 October.

What this does not tell you

A figure is only as good as the sheet it comes from. These are the fund houses' own numbers, not ours. One, 1,989% for Parag Parikh ELSS Tax Saver, is left out: it is far out of line with the same house's flexi cap fund, at 16.84%, and we could not confirm it.

It is one year. A year of heavy inflows or redemptions can move a fund's turnover without any change in how it is managed.

High turnover is not a verdict. A momentum or quantitative strategy is built to trade often; low turnover in such a fund would be the surprise. As the guide to portfolio turnover puts it, the useful question is whether the figure fits the strategy. None of this is a recommendation to buy or sell any fund.

Where to go from here

Fund pages show each fund's latest reported turnover, for example HDFC Mid Cap Fund. For expense ratios on their own, see the cheapest active equity funds by category and the most expensive.