Golden Oldies: The mutual fund schemes that have stood the test of market cycles over 20 years

• A good way to assess an old mutual fund is by tracking their performance over 5-20 years, say experts.
• Funds like Sundaram Midcap Fund, Nippon India Growth Fund, Quant Active Fund and more have given over 16% returns per annum for the last twenty years.
• An investor who had done an SIP for ₹10,000 for 20 years in any of the top ten best rewarding old funds, would now be sitting on over ₹1.5 crore.
  

India now has 40 million people who invest in mutual funds. If you’re not one of those, and want to err on the side of caution, you can choose funds that demonstrated a good run for over 20 years.

According to a report by Value Research, ten mutual fund schemes have stood the test of time. Funds like Sundaram Midcap Fund, Nippon India Growth Fund, Quant Active Fund and more have given over 16% returns per annum for the last twenty years.

“Some investment funds have weathered significant challenges including the 2008 subprime crisis, the 2013 taper tantrum, and the 2020 Covid induced lockdown,” said the Value Research report.

It adds that while even very successful funds failed during the times, but a few of these ‘golden oldies’ survived the crises to give positive returns to their investors.

The key to identifying such funds, Value Research says, is to track their long-term performance over 5-20 years. An investor who had done a systematic investment plan (SIP) for ₹10,000 for 20 years in any of these funds, would now be sitting on over ₹1.5 crore. If the investors would have increased their SIP amounts by 10% per annum, they would be sitting over ₹2.7 crore.

Here are the most rewarding old funds picked by the investment advisory and MF data firm.

Name of the fund	Category	Rating	20 year returns per annum
Sundaram Midcap Fund	Mid Cap	**	17.85%
Nippon India Growth Fund	Mid Cap	****	17.85%
Quant Active Fund	Multi Cap	Not Rated	17.10%
Tata Midcap Growth Fund	Mid Cap	***	16.97%
Quant Small Cap Fund	Small Cap	****	16.81%
SBI Large & Midcap Fund	Large & Mid Cap	*****	16.67%
Franklin India Prima Fund	Mid Cap	**	16.53%
HDFC Flexi Cap Fund	Flexi Cap	*****	16.31%
SBI Contra Fund	Value Oriented	*****	16.25%
Canara Robero Equity Tax Saver Fund	ELSS	****	16.19%

Source: Value Research

The value behind SIPs

Investors in India have matured over time and they are now leaning a lot more on SIPs, which have become a mainstay of retail flows into mutual funds. In September, inflows into SIPs hit an all-time high of ₹16,042.06 crore, according to Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI).

It also said that the cumulative Assets Under Management (AUM) for the mutual fund industry stood at ₹46.58 lakh crore as of September end. Apart from pushing investors to bring discipline into their investments, SIPs also automates investing providing convenience with stress-free investing.

“Increasing your SIP contributions in line with the rise in your earnings can magically grow your wealth. You can do this annually by increasing your SIP amount,” says a note by Value Research.

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