SUMMARY
- S&P Dow Jones Indices has been the de facto scorekeeper of the ongoing active versus passive debate since the first publication of the S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) U.S. Scorecard in 2002. Over the years, we have built on our experience publishing the report by expanding scorecard coverage into Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Japan, Latin America, and South Africa.
- The SPIVA India Scorecard compares the performance of actively managed Indian mutual funds with their respective benchmark indices over 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year investment horizons. In this scorecard, we studied the performance of three categories of actively managed equity funds and two categories of actively managed bond funds over the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods ending in June 2019.
- The S&P BSE 100 and S&P BSE 200 rallied in the first half of 2019. In the same period, active funds in the Indian Equity Large-Cap and Indian Equity Mid-/Small-Cap categories managed to recoup some lost ground by outperforming their respective benchmarks, while the bond categories noticed further underperformance against their respective benchmarks.
- Benchmarks for both bond categories witnessed strong rebounds in the one-year period ending in June 2019, aided by the Reserve Bank of India softening policy rates. The S&P BSE India Government Bond Index and the S&P BSE India Bond Index returned 14.25% and 13.37%, respectively, in the one-year period ending in June 2019.
- Indian Equity Large-Cap Funds: Over the one-year period, the S&P BSE 100 surged 9.79%, with 76.67% of funds underperforming the benchmark. In fact, across all the periods studied, the majority of actively managed large-cap equity funds in India underperformed the S&P BSE 100. Large-cap funds witnessed a low style consistency of 16.67% over the 10-year period and a low survivorship rate of 68.33%. The asset-weighted fund return was 85 bps higher than the equalweighted fund return over the 10-year period, and the return spread between the first and the third quartile breakpoints of the fund performance was 2.98% for the same period.
- Indian ELSS: Over the one-year period, the S&P BSE 200 ended in the black, returning 8.24%, with 80.95% of funds underperforming the benchmark. Over the three- and five-year periods ending in June 2019, 83.33% and 51.35% of funds underperformed the benchmark, respectively. Over the 10-year horizon, the return spread between asset-weighted and equal-weighted returns was only 18 bps. The return spread between the first and the third quartile breakpoints of the fund performance was 3.20%.
- Indian Mid-/Small-Cap Equity Funds: The benchmark for Indian Mid-/Small-Cap Equity funds, the S&P BSE 400 MidSmallCap Index, was down 6.68% during the one-year period ending in June 2019. Only 18.92% of the active funds underperformed the benchmark over the one-year period. Over the 10-year period, the survivorship rate and style consistency were low, at 64.37% and 26.44%, respectively. For the same period, the asset-weighted fund return was 22 bps higher than the equal-weighted fund return, and the return spread between the first and the third quartile breakpoints of the fund performance was 3.94%.
- Indian Government Bond Funds: The S&P BSE Indian Government Bond Index returned 14.25% over the one-year period ending in June 2019. Over the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods ending in June 2019, 76.92%, 73.17%, 84.62%, and 87.72% of the actively managed funds in this category lagged the benchmark, respectively. Over the 10-year period ending in June 2019, survivorship rate and style consistency were at 35.09% and 31.58%, respectively. For the same period, the asset-weighted fund return was 13 bps higher than the equal-weighted fund return, and the return spread between the first and the third quartile breakpoints of the fund performance was 1.83%.
- Indian Composite Bond Funds: In the 12-month period ending in June 2019, the S&P BSE India Bond Index closed in the black with a gain of 13.37%. Across all the observed periods, more than 94% of the funds underperformed the benchmark. Over the 10-year period, survivorship rate and style consistency were at 73.42% and 67.09%, respectively. For the same period, the assetweighted fund return was 38 bps higher than the equal-weighted fund return, and the return spread between the first and the third quartile break points of the fund performance was 1.53%.
- Average Fund Returns: In the one-year period ending in June 2019, the equal- and assetweighted returns of Indian ELSS and Indian Composite Bond fund categories were sharply lower than their respective benchmarks. In contrast, only the Indian Equity Mid-/Small-Cap category delivered higher equal- and asset-weighted average returns than its benchmark over the same period. Over the 10-year period, the largest outperformance relative to its benchmark was witnessed in the Indian Equity Mid-/Small-Cap category, as its asset-weighted return was 211 bps higher than its benchmark.