A Study on Performance Evaluation of Equity Linked Saving Schemes (ELSS) of Mutual Funds

Abstract

A mutual fund is a company that pools money from a group of investors and invests the money in different types of securities such as stocks, bonds, debt, etc. A mutual fund is one of the fastest-growing sectors in India and it plays a significant role in the Indian capital market. The equity-linked saving scheme is an open-ended equity diversified fund, which provides a tax benefit to investors under section 80 C of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Rs.1.5 lakh “income” gets tax benefit of up to Rs.45,000 at 30% tax without considering surcharge. However, with a large number of ELSS funds available, investors face the challenge of selecting suitable ELSS funds to suit their needs. This research paper is an attempt to evaluate the performance of the top five ELSS schemes of different mutual funds in India using various tools like Beta, Sharpe ratio, Jensen ratio, etc. It also suggests suitable ELSS schemes for investors so that they can achieve their investment objectives. The analysis reveals that the majority of funds have outperformed under Treynor's Ratio and Sharpe Ratio, giving constant and appreciable results during the course.

Keywords: ELSS Mutual Funds, Average Return, Coefficient of Determination (R2), Standard Deviation, Beta, The Sharpe Ratio, Treynor's Performance Index

JEL Classification: G01, G21, G23