122 of 143 ten-year equity funds beat Nifty 50 index funds

What we measured

For every Direct Growth equity fund with ten years of NAV history to 16 October 2026, WealthTicker's fund metrics give the annualised return. We grouped the funds by category and compared them with the Nifty 50 index funds that also have ten years behind them, as the nearest low-cost stand-in for "just own the market". That comparison includes costs and reinvested dividends, so it is fairer than comparing with the price index alone, which rose 10.4% a year over the same period.

Segregated portfolios, ELSS series funds and ETFs are left out.

Ten-year returns by category

Across all 218 equity funds with a ten-year record, including the sectoral and thematic ones and a handful of dividend yield and contra funds, the median is 13.8%. The ordering of the diversified categories follows size: the smaller the companies a category buys, the higher its ten-year median, and the wider the gap between best and worst fund.

The index fund yardstick

The nine Nifty 50 index funds with a ten-year record returned between 11.06% and 11.55% a year. Counting how many active funds in each category finished above the best of them (11.55%) and below the worst (11.06%):

122 of the 143 (85%) beat the best Nifty 50 index fund, and 16 trailed the worst. Large Cap is the closest contest: 13 of 22 above, 6 below. Our large cap versus Nifty 50 study and the rolling returns post look at that category in more depth.

The leaders and the laggards

The spread inside a category matters as much as the median. In Flexi Cap the best fund returned 18.5% and the worst 9.7%, 8.8 points a year apart, which compounds to roughly 5.4 times against 2.5 times over the decade.

Why the headline flatters

Survivorship. A ten-year figure exists only for funds that are still running. Funds that were merged away or closed after poor results are not in the table, so the table probably overstates what a typical investor of ten years ago earned.

The window favoured smaller companies. Mid and small caps led over this particular decade, and their medians are the highest. A different ten years would order the categories differently.

Hindsight. Nobody could pick the best fund in advance. What the table gives an investor is the range: the same category held a fund that returned 20.6% and another that returned 13.1%.

Cost and risk are not shown. Return is half the picture; our small-cap drawdown post shows the falls the highest-returning category went through along the way.

Using it

The numbers support a modest conclusion: over this decade, most diversified equity funds that survived beat a low-cost Nifty 50 index fund, with Large Cap the exception. They do not say which fund will do so over the next decade, and none of this is a recommendation to buy or sell any fund.

Source: WealthTicker fund metrics (10-year annualised return, Direct Growth plans), NAVs to 16 October 2026; funds with a full ten-year record only.