Is it a guarantee that a top performing mutual fund which has done exceptionally well for many years in a row, will perform well for the next years as well? You might wonder, you do so much effort to choose a good performing fund, then why it starts underperforming in subsequent years. 

Experts advice to do comprehensive research on the fund and the fund management team. But it’s also a secret that how do the fund managers select the stocks. What basics are followed by the management team for the capital growth of investors? 
The top mutual funds in India are selected by the researchers on calculating different parameters such as the fundamentals of the companies, their growth, risk appetite of the fund, credit policies of the company, exposure limit, etc. On the same framework, top 5 mutual funds that an investor can invest in are discussed briefly as under:

The fund invests majorly its assets in equity and equity-related securities of small-cap companies. The secondary investment is into debt and money market securities. The fund follows benchmark S&P BSE Small-Cap (TRI) to compete for its returns. It is managed by Mr Samir Rachh and Mr Dhrumil Shah, who research the data of various small-cap companies and then invest in them.

The fund is an open-ended equity scheme, having the AUM of Rs 7,207 cr as on April 30, 2018. The returns of the fund have always outperformed its benchmark consistently in past years.

Past Performance Analysis:​​​​​​​

The scheme invests its resources in equity and equity-related securities in companies with multiple market capitalization. It is an open-ended scheme which is following the benchmark S&P BSE 500 Index for its returns. 

Providing growth and dividend options to the investors, the scheme follows the bottom-up approach to pick the stocks from various sectors. The fund is currently managed by Mr Anup Upadhyay and it has an AUM of Rs 5173.92 Cr on April 30, 2018.

The fund has performed consistently well in the past years and has beaten the benchmark 3 times in a row from 2014 to 2016. The fund has provided trailing returns of 20.12% in last 5 years.

With an objective to invest for long-term capital appreciation, the scheme broadly puts its resources in equity and equity-related securities having the AUM of Rs 3,866 cr as on April 30, 2018. The fund is managed by Mr Mahesh Patil and Mr Milind Bafna who are very much experienced in their field.

An open-ended equity scheme that follows value investing strategy for managing its portfolio. Focusing on the management and past tracks of the companies, it follows a disciplined approach to select any stock.

The fund has performed so well consistently in the past years and has provided higher returns than its benchmark. The trailing returns of the fund are 28.36% in last 5 years.

The fund invests in blue-chip Indian companies via equity and equity-related securities. It allocates its funds in the top 20 companies of large-cap following the benchmark of NIFTY 50 Total Return.

It is an open-ended equity scheme, offering the option of growth and dividend re-investment which is managed by Mr Sankaran Naren & Mr Rajat Chandak. The fund is suitable for the investors whose risk appetite is moderately high.

The fund has performed appropriately better than its benchmark and the trailing returns of last 5 years is 15.97%.

It is an open-ended equity-linked tax savings scheme which has a lock-in period of 3 years. The fund invests in the equity and equity-related securities following S&P BSE 200 as its benchmark. 

It is managed by Mr Jignesh Gopani since April 2011, and offers growth and dividend plan. It has AUM of Rs 17,263 cr as on April 30, 2018.

The fund has performed well in past years, except for the last 2 years, when its returns are lesser than its benchmark. The trailing returns of the fund for last 5 years are 22.49%.

All the above-listed top performing mutual funds have been selected by the financial analysts over months of research. The performance of investors’ portfolio is one of the primary objectives of researchers as they believe in providing capital growth. 

A novice or old-handed, your capital is important and so your investments also should be par-excellence. The above article is a brief view of various top performing funds of 2018, where you can invest in.