13 smallcap mutual funds never posted negative returns in last 5 calendar years

Around 13 small cap mutual funds have never offered negative returns in the last five calendar years (from 2020 to 2024), an analysis by ETMutualFunds showed. Around 22 small cap funds have marked their presence in the market in the last five years.

The performance of these 13 funds was further analysed in the current calendar year so far and 11 have offered negative returns and two have offered positive returns so far in 2025.

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Axis Small Cap Fund has never offered negative returns in the last five calendar years but has lost around 3.26% so far in 2025. Canara Rob Small Cap Fund has never delivered negative returns in the last five calendar years but went down by 6.66% in 2025 so far.


DSP Small Cap Fund has also managed to offer positive returns in all the five calendar years since 2020 but has delivered a negative return of around 3.42% in 2025 so far.

Edelweiss Small Cap Fund also featured in the list of the schemes that have never offered negative returns in the last five calendar years and has lost 5.03% in 2025 so far. The fund was launched in February 2019 and delivered positive annual returns in 2019 also.

Franklin India Small Cap Fund has offered positive returns in the last five calendar years but lost around 7.76% in the current calendar year so far.

HDFC Small Cap Fund and HSBC Small Cap Fund have also not offered negative returns in the last five calendar years. In the current calendar year, HDFC Small Cap Fund has offered 0.10% whereas HSBC Small Cap Fund has lost 11.59% in 2025 so far.

ICICI Pru Smallcap Fund gave 22.76% in 2020, 61% in 2021, 5.75% in 2022, 37.94% in 2023, and 15.59% in 2024 and has delivered 0.66% in 2025 so far. LIC MF Small Cap Fund has also never offered negative returns in the mentioned period but lost 13.52% in 2025 so far, marking the biggest loser among these 13 small cap funds.

Nippon India Small Cap Fund, the largest small cap fund based on assets managed, offered 29.24%, 74.34%, 6.54%, 48.92%, and 26.07% in 2022, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively and it lost around 5.85% in the current calendar year so far.

Quant Small Cap Fund and SBI Small Cap Fund, two prominent small cap funds, have also not offered negative returns in the last five calendar years but lost 4.72% and 4.64% respectively in 2025 so far.

Tata Small Cap Fund also featured in the list of small cap funds that have never posted negative returns in the last five calendar years and lost around 6.15% in 2025 so far.

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Note, in the current calendar year out of 29 small cap funds only three schemes have offered positive returns. Apart from HDFC Small Cap Fund and ICICI Pru Smallcap Fund, the other one to offer a positive return in 2025 so far is Quantum Small Cap Fund.

We considered all small cap funds that have marked their presence in the last five calendar years. We considered regular and growth options. We calculated the yearly returns. We considered the performance since the calendar year 2020.

Note, the above exercise is not a recommendation. The exercise was done to find which small cap funds have not offered negative returns in the last five calendar years and their performance in the current calendar year 2025, as investment in equity mutual funds are made with a long-term horizon.

One should not make investment or redemption decisions based on the above exercises. One should always consider their risk appetite, investment horizon, and goals before making any investment decisions.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)