Equity mutual funds offer up to 19% return in May, sectoral & thematic funds take lead

Equity mutual funds offered up to 19% return in the month of May with sectoral and thematic funds leading the return chart, an analysis by ETMutualFunds showed. There were around 559 funds in the mentioned period of which 549 gave positive returns and 10 gave negative returns.

A further deep dive in the data showed that gainers and losers in May were from the same category which is they were from sectoral and thematic mutual fund category.

Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund offered the highest return of around 19.46% in May, followed by HDFC Defence Fund which gave 19.33% return in the same period. Invesco India - Invesco Global Consumer Trends FoF delivered 16.74% return in the mentioned period.


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Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ETF FoF delivered a return of 12.61% in the month of May, followed by DSP Small Cap Fund which gave 12.36% return in the similar period.

Four Nasdaq index based funds gave returns ranging between 11.11% to 11.81% in the month of May. Motilal Oswal Large & Midcap Fund delivered a return of 11.09% in the mentioned period.

Three funds from Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund - Motilal Oswal ELSS Tax Saver Fund, Motilal Oswal Manufacturing Fund, and Motilal Oswal Focused Fund offered 10.03%, 10%, and 9.93% returns respectively in the said period. Out of these funds, Motilal Oswal Manufacturing Fund was the last one to offer double-digit returns in the same period.

HDFC Small Cap Fund offered a return of 9.47% in the mentioned period. Motilal Oswal Small Cap Fund and Motilal Oswal Digital India Fund gave 9.15% and 9.03% returns respectively in May.

SBI Automotive Opportunities Fund gave 7.16% return in the above mentioned period. ICICI Pru Manufacturing Fund and Kotak Global Innovation FoF gave 7.09% return in the said period. Nippon India Small Cap Fund, the largest small cap fund based on the assets managed, gave 6.79% return in May.

Two funds from Edelweiss Mutual Fund - Edelweiss Small Cap Fund and Edelweiss Recently Listed IPO Fund - gave 6.17% and 6.13% returns respectively in May. Mirae Asset S&P 500 Top 50 ETF FoF gave 5.92% return in the mentioned period. Quant Small Cap Fund and ITI Multi-Cap Fund gave 5.77% return each in the same period.

SBI Magnum Midcap Fund offered 3.91% return in the month of May, followed by Kotak India EQ Contra Fund which gave 3.90% return in the same period.Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, the largest flexi cap fund based on assets managed, offered 2.73% return in the said period.

Mirae Asset Hang Seng TECH ETF FoF offered a return of 2.43% in the said period. LIC MF Healthcare Fund was the last one to offer positive returns in May. The scheme gave 0.08% in the said period.

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Negative performers


Around 10 equity mutual funds gave negative returns in the month of May. Axis US Treasury Dynamic Bond ETF FoF lost the most of around 1.13% in May, followed by DSP US Treasury FoF which lost 0.90% in the similar time frame.


Two healthcare sector based funds - SBI Healthcare Opp Fund and Kotak Healthcare Fund - lost 0.76% and 0.52% in the similar horizon. Shriram Multi Sector Rotation Fund delivered a negative return of 0.50% in the said period, followed by Tata India Pharma & Healthcare Fund which lost 0.41% in May.

Aditya Birla SL US Treasury 3-10 year Bond ETFs FoF lost 0.32% in May followed by two healthcare funds. Mirae Asset Healthcare Fund and Aditya Birla SL Pharma & Healthcare Fund delivered negative returns of 0.32% and 0.23% in the mentioned period.

Samco Active Momentum Fund was the last one to deliver negative returns in the said period. The scheme lost 0.07% in the month of May.

We considered all equity mutual funds including sectoral and thematic funds. We considered regular and growth options. We calculated the returns from May 1, 2025 to May 28, 2025.

Note, the above exercise is not a recommendation. The exercise was done to find how equity mutual funds have performed in the month of May. One should not make investment or redemption decisions based on the above performance.

One should always consider risk appetite, investment horizon, and goals before making any investment decisions.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

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