2026 has already sacked last year's winners

Summary: The average flexi-cap fund started 2026 at a certain NAV. Seven months later, it's back at the same place. The return is 0.6 per cent. Between those two identical numbers lies one of the most eventful half-years the market has seen.

Summary: The average flexi-cap fund started 2026 at a certain NAV. Seven months later, it's back at the same place. The return is 0.6 per cent. Between those two identical numbers lies one of the most eventful half-years the market has seen. On January 1 this year, the average flexi-cap fund had a certain NAV. Seven months later, it is back at the same place. The category’s return for 2026 so far is 0.6 per cent. Large-cap funds are down 2.6 per cent. ELSS is down 0.9. So nothing happened this year? Hardly. February was the worst month technology funds have had in years, down 16.7 per cent as AI shares fell around the world. In March the selling reached everything else. Large-cap funds lost 11.6 per cent that month, mid-caps 10.7, small-caps 9.7, and the newspapers were full of explanations for why this was only the beginning. Then April arrived and undid all of it. Small-cap funds gained 16.1 per cent in a single month, mid-caps 12.8, large-caps 9.3. If you had gone travelling in February with no phone and no newspaper, you would have returned in May t