Index Funds: Do you know about index mutual funds (also known as ‘index funds’)? Index mutual funds are open-ended equity funds aimed at replicating index returns. These are passive funds where money managers allocate the funds to the same securities and in the same proportion as in the market indices. In this article, let’s look at some of the top-performing index funds. Five funds have delivered annualised returns to the tune of 19-29 per cent in the last five years, according to mutual fund industry body AMFI’s website, amfiindia.com. These funds are: Motilal Oswal Nifty Smallcap 250 Index Fund, Motilal Oswal Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fund, DSP Nifty 50 Equal Weight Index Fund, UTI Nifty Next 50 Index Fund, DSP Nifty Next 50 Index Fund, LIC MF Nifty Next 50 Index Fund, Motilal Oswal Nifty Next 50 Index Fund, ICICI Prudential Nifty Next 50 Index Fund, Sundaram Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fund and Motilal Oswal Nifty 500 Index Fund.
Five out of the top-performing 10 index funds are benchmarked to the Nifty Next 50 Total Return Index and two to the Nifty 50 Equal Weight Total Return Index. Read on to learn about these MF schemes in detail.
Top Index MF Schemes | Take a look at the top-performing index mutual funds, as of January 6, 2025:
| Scheme | Benchmark(s) | Annualised 5-year Return (%)-Direct |
| Motilal Oswal Nifty Smallcap 250 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Smallcap 250 Total Return Index | 29.13 |
| Motilal Oswal Nifty Midcap 150 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Midcap 150 Total Return Index | 27.92 |
| DSP Nifty 50 Equal Weight Index Fundarrow | NIFTY 50 Equal Weight Total Return Index | 19.75 |
| UTI Nifty Next 50 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Next 50 Total Return Index | 19.62 |
| DSP Nifty Next 50 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Next 50 Total Return Index | 19.44 |
| LIC MF Nifty Next 50 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Next 50 Total Return Index | 19.42 |
| Motilal Oswal Nifty Next 50 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Next 50 Total Return Index | 19.4 |
| ICICI Prudential Nifty Next 50 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY Next 50 Total Return Index | 19.37 |
| Sundaram Nifty 100 Equal Weight Fundarrow | NIFTY 100 Equal Weighted Total Return Index | 18.86 |
| Motilal Oswal Nifty 500 Index Fundarrow | NIFTY 500 Total Return Index | 18.51 |
Index Mutual Fund Estimated Lump Sum Returns in 5 Years
Data shows that the top 10 funds in this category have rewarded investors with annualised returns of 18.5-29.1 per cent over five years.
Now, let’s interpret these returns.
What these returns mean is that one-time investments of Rs 5 lakh in each have grown to approximately Rs 11.69-17.95 lakh in the 5-year period, as per calculations.
Also, the top three schemes have grown to at least Rs 12.31 lakh, data shows.
Index MF Estimated SIP Returns
Now, let’s get to SIP returns.
In five years, a monthly SIP of Rs 1,000 in each fund has grown to about Rs 97,618-1,28,452 in the 10 schemes.