Mutual Fund Performance: Evidence from India

Abstract

We empirically examine fund managers’ stock selection and market timing ability using various risk-adjusted measures such as CAPM and multifactor models of Fama-French (1993) and Carhart (1997) to gauge mutual fund performance in India. The sample consists of 183 actively managed equity-oriented funds and covers the period from April 2000 to March 2018. The study, on the whole, documents some evidence of positive and significant stock selection ability but fails to yield any notable evidence of market timing ability of fund managers. Our results are robust according to various risk-adjusted performance evaluation techniques, sub-period analysis, excluding the crisis period and at the individual fund level. The findings of our study are in line with the previous studies that report limited selectivity skill and market timing ability among fund managers. The main implication of the study is that active portfolio management may not be very rewarding in comparison to a passive investment strategy.