Despite the good returns and high ratings, these schemes have not attracted the attention they

deserve. In fact, instead of buying them, investors have moved out of these funds over the past

three years. The total AUM of the 10 schemes has come down from Rs 787 crore in September

2010 to Rs 481 crore in September 2013, despite the 5 per cent absolute rise in the Nifty during

this period.

Big surprises come in small packages. While large mutual funds struggle to keep pace with their

benchmarks, a few, tiny schemes have churned out spectacular returns. A study by ET

Wealth shows that 10 small-sized funds have given weighted average returns of 10.6% in the

past year, compared with 1.9% delivered by the average diversified equity scheme. These

money-spinners are not mid- and small-cap funds that invest in little-known stocks and typically

have low asset bases. They are large-cap and multi-cap schemes, which invest in blue-chip

stocks and are highly rated by Value Research.

The other factor working against these schemes is that most of them are from smaller fund

houses. "Investors like to run with the crowd and very few want schemes from lesser known fund

houses," says Bala. With returns of 15.36 per cent in the past year, Religare Invesco Equity

Fund is among the best performing large- and mid-cap equity scheme, but its AUM is a measly

Rs 18.9 crore. Edelweiss Dividend Growth Equity Top 100 Fund has been assigned a 5-star

rating by Value Research, but its AUM is only Rs 20 crore. In a few cases, extraordinary

circumstances have contributed to the low AUMs.

After Fidelity Mutual Fund was taken over by L&T Mutual Fund, investors in the Fidelity India

Value Fund have gradually moved out, causing the AUM to fall from Rs 199 crore in September

2010 to about Rs 43 crore now.