Six months from the top
On Friday 2 January 2026 the Nifty 50 closed at 26,328.55, a record. Suppose you started a monthly SIP that day.
Take ₹10,000 a month into a Nifty 50 index fund, UTI Nifty 50 Index, Direct plan, Growth option, on the 2nd of each month. Six instalments later, the last on 2 June, you have put in ₹60,000. On 12 June it is worth ₹58,267, a loss of 2.89%.
Had you put the whole ₹60,000 in on 2 January instead, it would be worth ₹53,993, a loss of 10.01%.
The Nifty 50 closed at 23,622.90 on Friday, 10.28% below its January record.
Why the SIP is ahead
| Instalment | Date | Nifty 50 close |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 Jan | 26,328.55 |
| 2 | 2 Feb | 25,088.40 |
| 3 | 2 Mar | 24,865.70 |
| 4 | 2 Apr | 22,713.10 |
| 5 | 4 May | 24,119.30 |
| 6 | 2 Jun | 23,483.55 |
The May instalment falls on the 4th because the 2nd was a Saturday.
Only the first instalment was bought at the top. Each of the other five bought in lower, and the April one at 22,713.10, close to the year's lows. Because a fixed sum buys more units when the price is low, the average cost works out to an index level of about 24,378. Friday's close is 3.10% below that, not 10.28%.
That is all the SIP did. It did not avoid the fall; it bought most of its units after it.
The same SIP across fund categories
We ran the same six instalments through every diversified equity fund with a NAV on all six dates, valued at the NAV of 12 June.
| Category | Funds | SIP, change on amount invested | Lump sum from 2 Jan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Cap | 33 | 7.14% | 3.64% |
| Mid Cap | 31 | 3.76% | −0.02% |
| Multi Cap | 32 | 3.12% | −1.95% |
| Focused | 28 | 0.83% | −5.06% |
| Flexi Cap | 43 | 0.69% | −5.17% |
| Large & Mid Cap | 33 | 0.55% | −4.13% |
| ELSS | 38 | 0.15% | −5.63% |
| Value | 21 | −0.25% | −5.20% |
| Dividend Yield | 10 | −0.78% | −4.86% |
| Large Cap | 33 | −1.37% | −7.92% |
Medians, Direct plan, Growth option. Both columns are plain percentage changes, not annualised: over five months an annual rate would exaggerate everything.
Across all 305 funds, the median SIP is up 1.06% and the median lump sum down 3.92%. The SIP came out ahead in 302 of the 305; in the three exceptions, two small-cap funds and one mid-cap fund, the two methods ended within 0.11 points of each other.
Small caps are the one corner where even the January lump sum is ahead. The Nifty Smallcap 250 closed on Friday 1.69% above its 2 January level, while the Nifty Midcap 150 was 1.42% below and the Nifty 50 10.28% below.
Best and worst SIPs since January
Among the 305, the strongest six-instalment SIP was in Bank of India Small Cap, up 15.32%, followed by TrustMF Small Cap at 14.63% and JM Small Cap at 13.94%. The weakest was Franklin India Focused Equity, down 3.68%, whose lump sum from January is down 11.23%.
What this does not tell you
Six instalments is the start of a SIP, not its result. A SIP's outcome depends mostly on where prices are when it ends, years from now. These numbers say how the first five months went.
The SIP's edge came from the fall. Had the market risen from January instead, the lump sum would usually be ahead. Neither method is better in general.
Past returns don't predict future ones. None of this is advice to buy or sell any fund.
Where to go from here
SIP vs lump sum and rupee-cost averaging cover the mechanics. The SIP calculator and lump sum calculator project either forward.
For SIPs over a longer window, see SIP returns by fund category, and for how index funds track the Nifty 50, Nifty 50 index funds: how far each trails the index.
Frequently asked questions
What happened to a SIP started at the Nifty 50's January 2026 peak?
A ₹10,000 monthly SIP in UTI Nifty 50 Index Fund (Direct, Growth), started on 2 January 2026 when the Nifty 50 closed at its record 26,328.55, had six instalments by 2 June. The ₹60,000 invested was worth ₹58,267 on 12 June 2026, a loss of 2.89%. A ₹60,000 lump sum on 2 January was worth ₹53,993, a loss of 10.01%.
Did SIPs do better than lump sums in 2026?
For a start on 2 January 2026, almost always. Across 305 diversified equity funds, the six-instalment SIP was worth more on 12 June than a lump sum of the same total for 302 of them. The median SIP was up 1.06%; the median lump sum was down 3.92%.
Is a SIP always better than a lump sum?
No. A SIP beats a lump sum when prices fall after the start, as they did from January 2026. When prices rise steadily, the lump sum usually wins, because all of it is invested from the first day.
This is commentary on published data, not investment advice. WealthTicker is not a SEBI-registered adviser or distributor. Figures are as of the dates stated and can be revised by their source.
Keep reading
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Balanced advantage funds in 2026's falling market
The Nifty 50 fell 13.4% from 31 December 2025 to 30 September 2026. The median balanced advantage fund lost 1.7%, and its worst dip was 8.7%.
Direct vs regular plans: the 1.16-point equity fee gap
A regular equity plan costs a median 1.16 points a year more than its direct twin, on AMFI's September 2026 data. Over ten years, direct ended 10.2% ahead.