These 10 equity funds offered maximum returns in five years

Many mutual fund investors like to invest or finalise their investments during their Diwali holidays. Most of them search for best performing mutual fund schemes to start their investments. That is what prompted ETMutualFunds to look for 10 equity mutual fund schemes that have offered the maximum returns in the five-year period. We didn’t pick winners based on trailing returns. We considered daily rolling returns to choose winners.

These 10 schemes were from small cap, ELSS, large & mid cap, multi cap, and mid cap fund categories. Four small cap schemes, two large & mid cap schemes and ELSS schemes, one multi cap and mid cap scheme gave the maximum returns in the five year horizon.

Invesco India Smallcap Fund offered the highest return of 22.64% in the five year horizon. Quant Tax Plan, the second in the list, offered 18.89% in the same time period.


SBI Small Cap Fund and Axis Growth Opportunities Fund gave 18.46% and 18.01% respectively in five years. Quant Active Fund offered 17.71%.

Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund, the largest scheme in the large & mid cap category based on assets managed, offered 17.63%. The scheme manages assets of Rs 29,024 crore. Nippon India Small Cap Fund, the largest scheme in the small cap category based on assets managed, gave around 17.09% in a five year period.

Mahindra Manulife Mid Cap Fund, the only mid cap scheme in the list, gave 15.62%.

We calculated daily rolling returns for the five year period, starting from November 9, 2018 to November 9, 2023. ETMutualFunds considered daily rolling returns for the study. Many investors use point to point returns or trailing returns to assess the performance. However, rolling returns – average of returns over a period- do a better job. Rolling returns measures the scheme’s absolute performance across all market cycles. It can be rolled for a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly in the defined time frame.

We considered equity categories such as large cap, mid cap, multi cap, large & mid cap, focused fund, small cap, value & contra fund. We did not consider flexi cap schemes as these schemes were introduced three years ago, after Sebi recategorised mutual funds. We considered regular and growth option schemes.

Note, the above exercise is not a recommendation. One should not make investment or redemption decisions based on the above exercise. One should always consider their risk profile, investment horizon, and goal before making any investment decision.

If you are looking for recommendation, see:
Best small cap mutual funds to invest in 2023
Best mid cap mutual funds to invest in 2023
Best tax saving mutual funds or ELSS to invest in 2023
Best large & mid cap funds to invest in 2023