Before you invest in a mutual fund scheme, it is recommended to examine its past returns. Just like in a stock, a scheme’s past returns give an indication of how it may perform in the near future. Additionally, since mutual fund schemes indicate aggregate returns of their constituent stocks, their past returns gain relevance just like the historical returns of securities.
Here, we list out the past returns of one randomly selected mutual fund scheme – Kotak Flexi Cap Fund – to demonstrate how staying invested for a long time delivers exceptional returns as a result of compounding.
Kotak Flexi Cap Mutual Fund has delivered a 14.14 per cent return since its inception on September 11, 2009. The scheme is managed by Harsha Upadhyaya and has an AUM of ₹53,293 crore as on July 31, 2025, according to the data available on kotakmf.com.
The scheme’s benchmark index is Nifty 500 TRI and has a maximum allocation in these sectors: banks (22.81 per cent), IT-software (7.27 per cent), chemicals and petrochemicals (6.93 per cent), and aerospace & defence (6.54 per cent).
Being a flexi cap fund, the scheme’s fund manager enjoys complete flexibility to determine the allocation between large cap, mid cap and small cap stocks. Currently, the fund has 73.77 per cent exposure to large cap stocks, 18.7 per cent to mid caps, 5.32 per cent to small caps and 2.21 per cent to others.
As far as the past returns are concerned, the fund has delivered 4.53 per cent in the past one year, 17.04 per cent per annum in the past three years, 19.70 per cent a year in the past five years and 14.14 per cent since its launch in 2009.
As the table above shows, if someone had invested ₹1 lakh one year ago, the investment would have grown to ₹1.04 lakh. In three years’ time, the investment would have swelled to ₹1.60 lakh. In five years, the investment would have grown to ₹2.45 lakh.
Finally, if someone was lucky enough to invest right at the launch of this flexi cap mutual fund, the investment would have spiked to ₹8.19 lakh, according to the information on Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund’s website.
Note: This story is for informational purposes only. Please speak to a SEBI-registered investment advisor before making any investment-related decision.
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