Active large-cap mutual funds delivered an average -3.09% return over the past year, with only four of 33 funds posting gains according to latest data from Value Research as of September 20, 2026. For investors expecting large-cap funds to provide relatively stable equity exposure, the latest numbers present a disappointing one-year snapshot. The category's poor performance means an investor looking only at the past one-year period would not have seen FD-like returns from any of these equity funds, though large-cap funds remain market-linked investments and are not comparable with fixed deposits in terms of risk or return.
Quant Large Cap Fund topped the category with a 5.68% return, followed by Taurus Large Cap Fund at 5.13%, as reported by Value Research. Bank of India Large Cap Fund and Invesco India Large Cap Fund were the only other schemes to remain in positive territory, delivering 2.84% and 1.30% returns respectively. The gap between the top-performing fund and the rest of the category is notable, with Quant Large Cap Fund's 5.68% return followed closely by Taurus at 5.13%, but returns falling sharply thereafter. ITI Large Cap Fund was almost flat at -0.19%, while Bajaj Finserv Large Cap Fund returned -0.78%.
The negative returns were not restricted to smaller schemes, with several of the largest large-cap funds by assets also recording losses over the past year. ICICI Prudential Large Cap Fund, the largest fund in the dataset with ₹80,206 crore in net assets, returned -6.04%. SBI Large Cap Fund, with ₹55,140 crore, fell 2.63%, while Nippon India Large Cap Fund, with ₹54,134 crore, declined 5.83%. HDFC Large Cap Fund, managing ₹39,933 crore, returned -3.95%, and Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund and Axis Large Cap Fund fell 4.16% and 4.09% respectively, as reported by Value Research.
Samco Large Cap Fund was the worst performer in the dataset, declining 9.08% in one year, creating a 14.76 percentage-point gap between the highest and lowest returns in the category, according to Value Research data. This means the one-year weakness was visible even among several of the category's biggest schemes, rather than being limited to funds with relatively small asset bases. The data shows that negative one-year returns have been widespread across active large-cap funds, with only four of the 33 funds able to generate positive returns, while the category as a whole remained down 3.09%.
While the data shows widespread negative one-year returns across active large-cap funds, a one-year return alone does not establish whether a large-cap fund is suitable for an investor or whether it should be switched, as reported by Value Research. Equity funds can go through periods of negative returns, and a meaningful assessment would also require longer-term performance, benchmark comparison and consistency across market cycles. The poor performance reflects the challenging market conditions faced by large-cap equity investments during the past year, with current market volatility attributed to multiple headwinds including regulatory proposals affecting major financial companies.
