Performance and Risk Analysis of Mutual Funds

Investment into equity funds always carry risk element wherein retail investors are of risk averse. Parallel investment into equity is Mutual funds. Mutual fund investment will support the requirement of investors and the risk element can be diversified. The main constraint from the investors point of view is how to select the potential mutual funds that fulfils his long-term goals. This study provides the required knowledge on how to select the mutual fund based on the performance. Equity Fund (Large Cap), Debt Fund (Gilt), and Hybrid Fund (Aggressive) are the schemes that are selected for our study. For each category,one mutual fund from three leading Asset Management Companies(AMC) - SBI, HDFC & ICICI – has been selected for analysis. The aim is to compare how these funds perform in terms of returns and associated risks, that help investors to make better financial decisions. This topic was chosen due to the increasing popularity of mutual funds and the need to understand risk-adjusted performance. Key metrics like Risk-free Rate, Beta, Standard Deviation(SD), Average return, Covariance, & Net Asset Value(NAV) are used, along with models like Sharpe Ratio, Treynor Ratio, & Jensen’s Alpha are applied to evaluate performance and risk more precisely. The research highlights how different types of funds behave under market fluctuations and helps to identify which AMC performs better in each category, that aims to guide retail investors in making informed decisions based on risk tolerance and return expectations.