Top 5 Best Equity Oriented Mutual Funds 2025 - 2026

“Equity Mutual Funds are the perfect solution for people who want to own stocks without doing their own research”. – Peter Lynch

When planning to invest in Mutual Funds many investors look for higher return funds. Well, Equity Funds are known for it. Over the long-run, these funds have proven to deliver high returns. Equity funds are a type of Mutual Funds that invests major of its corpus in stocks or equities. Buying an equity fund is one of the best ways to own a business (in a small proportion) without Investing or starting a company directly. These funds can be actively or passively managed, depending on their objective. Let’s know about different equity oriented fund types, equity fund taxation, best equity oriented mutual funds to invest, etc.

Equity Oriented Funds Types

There are various types of equity mutual funds such as Large cap funds, mid & Small cap funds, Diversified Funds, sector funds, etc. These funds come with different investment objectives & risk. Since, equity funds invest in stocks/shares they can be highly risky. So, investors who can Handle the risk of equities should only prefer investing in these funds. Ideally, equities are meant for long-term plan. To get the best results, investors should preferably investing in equities for more than 5 years. The various types of equity funds are as follows:

Large Cap Funds

These funds invest major of its corpus with companies of large market capitalization. These are essentially large companies with large businesses with big team size. The market cap of such companies is more than 1000 Cr. Large cap funds, also known as blue-chip funds, invest in those companies that have the potential of showing year on year steady growth and profits. This, in turn, offers stability to the investors in the long-run.

Mid & Small Cap Funds

These funds invest in the shares of the most emerging companies in India. The market caps of mid-cap companies are around 500-1000 Cr and the market cap of small-cap companies could be more around 100-500 Cr. These funds are riskier than large-cap funds. That’s why is it suggested that the investing period of both mid & small caps should be much higher than large-caps. If the companies of these funds perform well in the long run, then it could make good profits to the investors.

Diversified Funds

Diversified funds invest across all three market capitalizations, i.e., across large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap funds. They typically invest anywhere between 40–60% in large-cap stocks, 10–40% in mid-cap stocks and about 10% in small-cap stocks. Sometimes, the exposure to small-caps may be very small or none at all. It is said that a diversified fund tends to balance out the risk in the portfolio. For instance, if one fund fails to perform, others are there to balance the returns in the portfolio. But, being an equity fund, the risk still remains in the investment.

Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS)

ELSS is the tax savings scheme, where investors can save their Taxes under Section 80C of the income tax Act. One can claim the tax Deduction of up to INR 1,50,000 from their taxable Income. ELSS comes with the shortest lock-in of three years. Also, the fund offers the twin advantage of Capital gains and tax benefits, that’s one can also earn returns from their investments in ELSS.

Sector Funds and Thematic Funds

Sector funds invest in stocks of companies that trade in a particular sector or industry, for example- a pharma fund would invest only in pharmaceutical companies. Thematic funds can be across a wider sector than just keep a very narrow focus, for example, media and entertainment. In this theme, the Fund can invest in various companies across publishing, online, media or broadcasting. The risks with thematic funds are the highest since there is virtually very little diversification.

International Funds

These funds are also known as global fund invest in offshore or foreign equity markets. These funds aim to provide the Indian investors with avenues of international investing and diversification. These are increasingly becoming popular in the context of diversification.

value funds, contra funds, dividend yield funds and focused fund are some of the other types of equity funds.

Equity Oriented Mutual Funds Taxation

1) Taxation on all Equity Oriented Schemes

Depending on the holding period of Mutual Funds, there are two types of Mutual Fund Taxation on growth options-

*Gains up to INR 1 lakh are free of tax. Tax at 10% applies to gains above INR 1 lakh. Earlier rate was 0% cost calculated as closing price on Jan 31, 2018. #Dividend tax of 10% + Surcharge 12% + Cess 4% =11.648% Health & Education Cess of 4% introduced. Earlier, education Cess was 3%

Short Term Capital Gains

When Equity Mutual Funds with growth option are sold or redeemed within a one-year period, one is liable to pay a short term Capital Gain tax of 15% on returns.

Long Term Capital Gains

When you sell or redeem your equity funds after a year of investment, you are taxed at 10% (with no indexation) under long term capital gain tax.

New Tax Rules on Long Term Capital Gains Applicable from 1st April 2018

As per the Budget 2018 speech, a new Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) tax on equity oriented mutual funds & stocks will be applicable from 1st April. Long-term capital gains exceeding INR 1 lakh arising from redemption of Mutual Fund units or equities on or after 1st April 2018, will be taxed at 10 percent (plus cess) or at 10.4 percent. Long-term capital gains till INR 1 lakh will be exempt. For example, if you earn INR 3 lakhs in combined long-term capital gains from stocks or Mutual Fund investments in a financial year. The taxable LTCGs will be INR 2 lakh (INR 3 lakh - 1 lakh) and tax liability will be INR 20,000 (10 per cent of INR 2 lakh).

Illustrations

Fair market value of the shares as on January 31, 2018 to be the cost of acquisition as per the grandfathering provision.

Best Performing Equity Oriented Mutual Funds

Some of the Best equity funds as per category ranking are as follows-