The number
Of 22 value funds with at least a year of history, 7 had a positive one-year return to 19 October 2026. The median was -3.3%. Over three years the median was 10.9% a year, and over five 11.2%. The best fund returned 15.6% and the worst -9.3%, a gap of 24.9 percentage points.
Value funds, under SEBI's rules, follow a value investment strategy; contra funds follow a contrarian one. A fund house can run only one of the two. Five contra funds appear in the data, three with a full year behind them, so the contra figures are brief.
Every value and contra fund
Direct plan, Growth option, ranked by one-year return. Blanks mean the fund has too little history for the figure.
| Fund | 1-year | 3-year (a year) | 5-year (a year) | Worst 3-year fall | Volatility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIC MF Value | 15.6% | 16.1% | -25.2% | 17.4% | |
| Quant Value | 9.6% | 19.1% | -24.0% | 19.0% | |
| Aditya Birla Sun Life Value | 6.2% | 12.2% | 12.2% | -22.3% | 16.8% |
| Mahindra Manulife Value | 5.0% | 14.7% | |||
| DSP Value | 3.5% | 15.2% | 11.7% | -13.7% | 11.2% |
| Axis Value | 2.9% | 16.7% | 14.1% | -17.1% | 14.2% |
| HDFC Value | 1.2% | 14.6% | 12.0% | -18.2% | 13.9% |
| HSBC Value | -0.4% | 14.4% | -19.6% | 16.1% | |
| ITI Value | -2.6% | 10.9% | 10.3% | -21.4% | 17.3% |
| Groww Value | -2.7% | 11.5% | 9.6% | -16.5% | 13.7% |
| Union Value | -3.0% | 10.7% | 10.3% | -17.9% | 14.9% |
| Bandhan Value | -3.5% | 9.7% | 11.2% | -17.9% | 13.0% |
| Tata Value | -3.6% | 11.6% | 11.3% | -20.9% | 15.6% |
| JM Value | -3.8% | 10.1% | 12.6% | -26.1% | 17.3% |
| Baroda BNP Paribas Value | -5.3% | 7.6% | -19.8% | 14.8% | |
| Canara Robeco Value | -6.9% | 9.4% | 11.3% | -19.0% | 13.9% |
| Templeton India Value | -7.6% | 8.2% | 10.8% | -18.0% | 13.3% |
| UTI Value | -7.6% | 10.9% | 9.5% | -17.2% | 13.5% |
| ICICI Prudential Value | -7.9% | 10.9% | 12.2% | -14.0% | 11.4% |
| Nippon India Value | -8.9% | 11.5% | 11.0% | -17.6% | 15.4% |
| Quantum Value | -9.1% | 9.0% | 8.2% | -15.9% | 12.5% |
| Sundaram Value | -9.3% | 5.7% | 6.1% | -15.9% | 13.1% |
| Kotak Contra | -5.3% | 13.3% | 12.2% | -18.9% | 14.7% |
| Invesco India Contra | -5.7% | 13.3% | 11.1% | -18.6% | 15.1% |
| SBI Contra | -6.1% | 9.6% | 13.1% | -15.8% | 12.6% |
Bank of India Value, NJ Value, ICICI Prudential Contra and Bandhan Contra are newer and have no one-year figure yet.
What the numbers say
Leaders over one year were not leaders on risk. LIC MF Value and Quant Value top the one-year column but also carry the highest volatility among the value funds (17.4% and 19.0%) and deep three-year falls (-25.2% and -24.0%). The two shallowest falls belong to DSP Value (-13.7%) and ICICI Prudential Value (-14.0%), whose volatility is also the lowest, at 11.2% and 11.4%. ICICI Prudential Value still returned -7.9% over one year, so a shallow fall did not mean a good year.
Three-year returns tell a different story. The best three-year returns are Quant Value (19.1%), Axis Value (16.7%) and LIC MF Value (16.1%). Sundaram Value had the lowest, at 5.7%. Over one year it also finished last. The medians show the reversal: -3.3% for the year against 10.9% a year over three.
The middle was crowded. From HSBC Value at -0.4% to Tata Value at -3.6%, six funds sat within 3.2 points of each other. Only four of the 22 value funds returned 5% or more.
Contra funds, small sample. Kotak Contra and Invesco India Contra each had a three-year return of 13.3% a year, above the value-fund median of 10.9%. Their one-year returns were -5.3% and -5.7%. With only a handful of funds in the group, we would not generalise from them.
Caveats
- One year is short. A value strategy, by definition, buys what the market has marked down. A year in which such stocks lag says little about the strategy over a full cycle.
- Different portfolios. Funds in this category differ in how much they hold in large, mid and small companies, in cash, and in overseas stocks.
- No ranking implied. The table is a record of past returns. It is not a list to pick from.
For a closer look at four of these side by side, see HDFC, Axis, Quant and LIC value funds compared. The screener can sort the category on any of these columns.
Frequently asked questions
How did value funds do over the last year?
Of 22 Direct Growth value funds with a full year of history, 7 had a positive one-year return to 19 October 2026. The median was -3.3%, with a range from -9.3% (Sundaram Value Fund) to 15.6% (LIC MF Value Fund).
Which value fund had the shallowest worst fall?
DSP Value Fund, at -13.7% over three years, followed by ICICI Prudential Value Fund at -14.0%. The deepest were JM Value at -26.1% and LIC MF Value at -25.2%.
How many contra funds are there?
Five in the Direct Growth set, of which three have a year of history: Kotak, Invesco India and SBI Contra, at -5.3%, -5.7% and -6.1% over one year.
This is commentary on published data, not investment advice. WealthTicker is not a SEBI-registered adviser or distributor. Figures are WealthTicker’s own calculations from public data — AMFI’s fund NAVs and disclosures, NSE’s index and FII/DII files, and the fund houses’ monthly portfolios (how we calculate). They are as of the dates stated and can be revised by their source.
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