share mutual funds Betting on information technology stocks, mid-caps and small-caps has yielded the highest returns for investors who have invested in these products through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) over the past decade. Average sip As per an ET study by Value Research Data, the return from the universe of equity schemes is 16.09% (annualized) for a tenor of 10 years. SIP in Sensex Nifty gave returns of 16.19% and 15.92% respectively during this period.

Out of total 263 equity mutual fund schemes, 25 funds have given returns above 20%, 158 have generated between 15% to 20% and 64 have generated returns between 10% and 15%. SIPs done in 16 have given returns of less than 10%, while three schemes have seen a drop in value. PSU banks, international, regional and some thematic funds are the ones that have been underperformers.

Financial planners say that though some themes have been outperformers, investors would be better off having top-performing diversified equity mutual funds, where returns are less volatile, as part of their core portfolio. “Investors should allocate around 50% to large-/index/flexi-cap funds, 30% to mid-/small-cap funds and 20% to international/regional/thematic funds while doing SIPs for a tenor of 10 years,” says Harshvardhan Rungta, Certified Financial Planner, Rungta Securities.