Here's looking at you, kids

It rained NFOs (new fund offers) in the financial year just gone by. A staggering 176 new mutual funds - of which 114 are equity funds - were rolled out for investors, the highest in the last five years. In terms of inflows, these new funds pocketed a cool Rs 39,427 crore (till February 2024) from investors, second only to FY22. There was a massive appetite for thematic and multi-asset funds, with SBI Energy Opportunities Fund being a standout, raising an impressive Rs 6,547 crore during its launch period. Despite our general stance against NFOs, for they have no history and track record, we wanted to check if these newbies have hit the market running. Granted, they are too young for an examination, but we decided to scan the performance of actively managed equity funds with at least a three-month history. (Thematic funds were excluded as they have a limited number of stocks to choose from). Of the 20 funds that fit our criteria, only three belonged in the top quartile of their respective categories based on our classification, as seen in the table below: ITI Focused Equity Launched last June with a mandate of investing in up to 30 stocks only, ITI Focused Equity has deliv