EVALUATION OF EQUITY MUTUAL FUNDS PERFORMANCE BEFORE AND DURING OUTBREAK OF COVID -19 PANDEMIC IN INDIA

Abstract The outbreak of Covid – 19 Pandemic has deeply affected worldwide economic development. And economic growth of any country depends on the industry performance. This study helped to understand how mobilization of funds from household sector to corporate sector plays an important role in development of the industry as well as for economy. This study also provided performance evaluation of different equity mutual funds from different categories and their impact on investors mobilized saving or capital market participants considering different aspects such as sharpe ratio, beta and treynor ratio. This study covered the pre and post covid performance of mutual funds across different categories, namely; Small Cap, Mid Cap, Large Cap, Flexi cap, ElSS schemes, Thematic Schemes. It covers the return each fund has given over a period of time, their Sharpe ratio, treynor. At the same time, it provides analysis of additional return per unit of risk evidenced by specific mutual fund scheme. In this research paper an attempt is made on a comparative performance analysis of the growth-oriented equity diversified schemes for 5 months prior to outbreak of Covid-19 and 5 months during Covid-19 on the basis of return and risk evaluation. The analysis was achieved by assessing various financial tests like Average Return, Sharpe Ratio, Treynor Ratio, Standard Deviation and Beta. The used data is opening and closing NAVs for five months before Covid-19 effect and five months during Covid-19 pandemic. The source of data is the website of Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). This study helped the mutual fund investor to comprehend the performance of different schemes of mutual funds prior period of covid, during covid and after the pandemic ended. For investors, mutual funds are one of the best investment options to get good returns. After the outbreak of Covid -19 Pandemic, global market went down and economy was affected badly