Large cap mutual funds are often seen as the relatively steadier part of an equity portfolio. They invest in established companies and are generally considered less aggressive than mid and small cap funds.
But picking an active large cap fund that can consistently beat its benchmark is not easy.
An analysis of 24 active large cap funds with at least 10 years of history shows that only 6 have outperformed the BSE 100 TRI across all four periods: one, three, five and 10 years.
The six funds are Invesco India Largecap Fund – Direct Plan – Growth, Baroda BNP Paribas Large Cap Fund – Direct Plan – Growth, Edelweiss Large Cap Fund – Direct Plan – Growth, Bandhan Large Cap Fund – Direct Plan – Growth, Kotak Large Cap Fund – Direct Plan – Growth and HDFC Large Cap Fund – Direct Plan – Growth.
For a common comparison, the BSE 100 TRI has been used as the benchmark across the six funds, even though some funds officially track the Nifty 100 TRI.
The comparison is based on the returns in the source data and does not mean these six funds will necessarily outperform in the future.
Six large-cap funds that beat the benchmark across all four periods
| Fund | 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years |
| Invesco India Largecap Direct | 9.96% | 16.05% | 13.58% | 14.20% |
| Baroda BNP Paribas Large Cap Direct | 5.63% | 13.76% | 12.73% | 13.72% |
| Edelweiss Large Cap Direct | 4.79% | 12.18% | 12.09% | 13.62% |
| Bandhan Large Cap Direct | 6.38% | 14.87% | 12.74% | 13.57% |
| Kotak Large Cap Direct | 3.50% | 12.53% | 11.57% | 13.35% |
| HDFC Large Cap Direct | 3.18% | 11.43% | 13.06% | 13.14% |
| BSE 100 TRI | 2.89% | 11.01% | 11.04% | 12.97% |
(Data source: Value Research)
The benchmark returned 2.89% over one year, 11.01% over three years, 11.04% over five years and 12.97% over 10 years.
The broader large cap category also beat the benchmark over one, three and five years, returning 4.58%, 12.48% and 11.14% respectively. Only over 10 years did it fall short, returning 12.50% against the benchmark’s 12.97%.
Invesco has the widest lead
Among the six funds, Invesco India Largecap Fund, Direct Plan, has shown the strongest outperformance across the four periods.
It returned 9.96% over one year, compared with 2.89% for the BSE 100 TRI, a lead of 7.07 percentage points.
Over three years, the fund returned 16.05%, beating the benchmark by 5.04 percentage points.
Its five year return of 13.58% was 2.54 percentage points higher than the benchmark, while its 10 year return of 14.20% was 1.23 percentage points higher.
So the fund’s edge has not been limited to one particular period.
Launched in January 2013, the fund has delivered 15.15% since inception. Its AUM stood at Rs 1,931 crore as of July 31, 2026, and its expense ratio was 0.67%. Its riskometer rating is Very High Risk.
Its mean return is 15.33%, standard deviation 15.63%, Sharpe ratio 0.61, Sortino ratio 0.79, beta 1.06 and alpha 4.20%.
Its top holdings include ICICI Bank (8.25%), ICICI Prudential Asset Management (4.97%), HDFC Bank (4.37%) and Bajaj Finance (3.97%).
Baroda BNP Paribas keeps a steady edge
Baroda BNP Paribas Large Cap Fund, Direct Plan, also managed to beat the benchmark across every period.
It returned 5.63% over one year, 2.74 percentage points above the BSE 100 TRI.
Over three years, its 13.76% return was 2.75 percentage points higher than the benchmark. The fund returned 12.73% over five years, beating the benchmark by 1.69 percentage points.
Its 10 year return of 13.72% was 0.75 percentage points ahead of the index.
The fund, launched in January 2013, has delivered 14.88% since inception. Its AUM was Rs 2,632 crore as of July 31, 2026, with an expense ratio of 0.67%. Its riskometer rating is Very High Risk.
Its mean return is 13.09%, standard deviation 14.58%, Sharpe ratio 0.50, Sortino ratio 0.66, beta 0.99 and alpha 2.28%.
Its largest holdings include ICICI Bank (6.23%), HDFC Bank (5.63%), Reliance Industries (5.59%), Hitachi Energy India (4.73%) and Larsen & Toubro (4.24%).
Edelweiss beats the index, but the gap is smaller
Edelweiss Large Cap Fund, Direct Plan, delivered 4.79% over one year, beating the benchmark by 1.90 percentage points.
Its three year return of 12.18% was 1.17 percentage points higher than the BSE 100 TRI.
Over five years, it returned 12.09%, a 1.05 percentage point advantage. Its 10 year return of 13.62% was 0.65 percentage points ahead.
The fund was launched in January 2013 and has delivered 14.14% since inception. Its AUM stood at Rs 1,443 crore as of July 31, 2026, and its expense ratio was 0.58%.
Its riskometer rating is Very High Risk.
Its mean return is 11.80%, standard deviation 13.95%, Sharpe ratio 0.43, Sortino ratio 0.53, beta 0.96 and alpha 1.15%.
The fund’s top holdings include ICICI Bank (7.66%), HDFC Bank (6.90%), Reliance Industries (5.56%), Larsen & Toubro (4.38%) and Bharti Airtel (3.87%).
Bandhan stands out over three years
Bandhan Large Cap Fund, Direct Plan, had the second highest three year return among the six at 14.87%, behind only Invesco.
It beat the benchmark by 3.86 percentage points over three years.
Its one year return was 6.38%, a 3.49 percentage point lead. Over five years, it returned 12.74%, 1.70 percentage points above the benchmark.
Its 10 year return of 13.57% was 0.60 percentage points higher.
Launched in January 2013, the fund has delivered 13.13% since inception. It had Rs 2,145 crore in AUM as of July 31, 2026, with an expense ratio of 0.76%. Its riskometer rating is Very High Risk.
Its mean return is 14.10%, standard deviation 14.91%, Sharpe ratio 0.56, Sortino ratio 0.75, beta 1.02 and alpha 3.17%.
Its top holdings include ICICI Bank (8.96%), HDFC Bank (7.34%), Reliance Industries (6.02%), Infosys (3.89%) and SBI (3.83%).
Kotak’s outperformance is much narrower
The story looks different for Kotak Large Cap Fund, Direct Plan.
The fund did beat the BSE 100 TRI across all four periods, but its lead was relatively small.
Its one year return was 3.50%, only 0.61 percentage points higher than the benchmark.
Over three years, it returned 12.53%, beating the index by 1.52 percentage points. Its five year return of 11.57% was only 0.53 percentage points higher.
Over 10 years, it returned 13.35%, a lead of just 0.38 percentage points.
Launched in January 2013, Kotak Large Cap has delivered 14.06% since inception. It had Rs 11,028 crore in AUM as of July 31, 2026, making it the second largest fund in this group after HDFC. Its expense ratio was 0.57% and its riskometer rating is Very High Risk.
The fund’s mean return is 12.36%, standard deviation 14.11%, Sharpe ratio 0.47, Sortino ratio 0.57, beta 0.98 and alpha 1.66%.
Its top holdings include ICICI Bank (8.05%), HDFC Bank (6.19%), Reliance Industries (6.04%), SBI (4.45%) and Bharti Airtel (4.12%).
HDFC has the narrowest 10 year lead
HDFC Large Cap Fund, Direct Plan, also beat the benchmark in every period, but the margin was particularly thin over one, three and 10 years.
It returned 3.18% over one year, just 0.29 percentage points higher than the BSE 100 TRI.
Its three year return of 11.43% was 0.42 percentage points higher.
The fund did much better over five years, returning 13.06% and beating the benchmark by 2.02 percentage points.
But over 10 years, its 13.14% return was only 0.17 percentage points above the index.
The fund was launched in January 2013 and has delivered 13.27% since inception. It is the largest of the six, with Rs 40,198 crore in AUM as of July 31, 2026. Its expense ratio was 0.83%, and its riskometer rating is Very High Risk.
HDFC Large Cap has a mean return of 11.37%, standard deviation 13.86%, Sharpe ratio 0.41, Sortino ratio 0.49, beta 0.95 and alpha 0.80%.
Its top holdings are ICICI Bank (9.86%), HDFC Bank (7.21%), Bharti Airtel (5.85%), Kotak Bank (5.28%) and Titan (5.00%).
Large cap funds are growing slower than the overall MF industry
The performance comes at a time when large cap funds are attracting money at a slower pace than the mutual fund industry as a whole.
Large cap funds had Rs 4,16,422.97 crore in AUM as of July 31, 2026, up from Rs 3,91,762.73 crore a year earlier, a 6.29% year on year increase.
The overall mutual fund industry’s AUM, meanwhile, rose from Rs 75,35,970.68 crore to Rs 85,75,656.52 crore, a much stronger 13.80% increase over the same period.
The category also saw a sharp change in flows in July.
Large cap funds recorded a net outflow of Rs 1,321.69 crore in July, compared with an inflow of Rs 2,067.48 crore in June.
According to AMFI data, this was the first monthly outflow from the category in nearly three years.
BSE 100 is still close to its 52 week high
The benchmark itself has not been weak despite the relatively modest returns over the shorter periods.
The BSE 100 stood at 26,137.30, compared with its 52 week high of 27,621.72, around 5.4% below its recent peak.
This provides an important backdrop to the fund comparison. The six funds have not simply beaten a falling or sharply weak benchmark. They have outperformed an index that remains relatively close to its recent high.
What the numbers tell investors
The biggest takeaway is not simply that six large cap funds have beaten the BSE 100 TRI. It is the consistency of the outperformance.
A fund can beat its benchmark in one year because of a particular stock bet or a favourable market phase. Doing it across one, three, five and 10 years is a much higher bar.
But there is another point worth noting: not all benchmark beating is equal.
Invesco’s lead is substantial, particularly over one and three years. Bandhan also stands out over three years. Baroda BNP Paribas has maintained a relatively consistent margin across all four periods.
Kotak and HDFC, on the other hand, have beaten the benchmark by much narrower margins over several periods.
That distinction matters. An investor who only reads the words “outperformed the benchmark” could miss how large or small the difference actually is.
Past outperformance also does not guarantee future performance. Large cap funds remain equity investments and carry market risk. A fund that has beaten the benchmark over several periods can still underperform going forward.
The more useful way to read this data, then, is not simply which funds beat the benchmark, but how consistently they did so, by how much, and alongside what level of risk and cost.
Disclaimer: Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. The analysis is based on historical returns and other data available as of July 31, 2026, and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any fund. Investors should assess their risk profile and financial goals and consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.
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