Best Mutual Funds: These sectoral funds gave over 25% CAGR returns in the past 5 years. Do you own any?

Are you planning to invest into some sectoral mutual funds? If yes, it is natural to look for the schemes which have performed exceptionally well in the recent past. Although most wealth advisors would tell you to refrain from taking any investing call solely on the basis of past returns, still it is common among investors to give a lot of emphasis on the past returns delivered by a mutual fund vis-a-vis other schemes in the same category.

Here, we list out the sectoral/ thematic schemes which have given high returns in the past five returns. For those who are unaware, sectoral/thematic funds are the mutual funds, which invest a minimum of 80 percent in the stocks of a particular sector or theme, as per the Sebi's rules of categorisation of mutual fund schemes.

There are 183 sectoral mutual fund schemes. These schemes received an inflow of around ₹13,255 crore in Sept alone. The total AUM of these schemes is ₹4,67,188 crore, highest among all categories of equity mutual funds, which also include flexi cap, ELSS, large cap, mid cap and small cap funds, reveals the latest AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India) data as on Sept 30, 2024.

The schemes we have listed are the top-performing sectoral/thematic mutual fund schemes, which have delivered over 25 percent CAGR return in the past five years as on Oct 18, 2024. It is important to note that most of these top performing schemes fall in the categories of IT, infrastructure, healthcare, energy and manufacturing.

Top performing sectoral/thematic mutual funds:

(Source: AMFI; Five-year-returns as on Oct 18, 2024)

As we can see in the table above, the top performing schemes among the sectoral/thematic funds are Quant Infrastructure Fund (36.11%) followed by ICICI Prudential Commodities Fund (32.63%), ICICI Prudential Infrastructure Fund (32.16%)and DSP Healthcare Fund (32.35%).

Other high-performing schemes include Bandhan Infrastructure Fund (31.12%), Nippon India Power & Infra Fund (31.30%) and Invesco India Infrastructure Fund (31.70%).

Wealth advisors often suggest that sectoral/ thematic funds are risky and one should allocate only a small portion of their portfolio to them. "It is not recommended to allocate more than 20 percent of total portfolio in sectoral/ thematic mutual funds. And this allocation should be spread across different sectoral funds -- not in one scheme," says Sridharan S, Founder of Wealth Ladder Direct.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that a scheme's past returns, although indicative, do not guarantee the future returns. In other words, a scheme may have performed well in the past, this performance may not continue in the future.

Note: This story is for informational purposes only. Please speak to a SEBI-registered investment advisor before making any investment related decision.