Top 15 ETFs to buy in the current market conditions
Last Updated: 11th December 2022 - 12:50 pm
Why have ETFs taken off in the Indian market in such a big way. According to AMFI, the total AUM of ETFs and index funds is now over Rs.2 trillion and growing. ETFs are just like mutual funds, but they are also different. ETFs are mandatorily listed on the stock exchanges and tend to be closed-ended. That means, you cannot approach the fund to sell or redeem units but such units can be bought and sold in the stock markets and held in demat accounts.
What has made ETFs popular? The legendary Jack Bogle famously said “Why look for a needle in a haystack, when you can buy the entire haystack”. What he meant was why to worry about selecting stocks when you can buy the entire market. He meant buying a market representative benchmark like the Nifty or the Sensex. Such representative indices can be purchased through the ETF route.
Here is why the ETF route is attractive. Typically, global mutual funds have struggled to beat the indices with more than 80% of them doing worse than the index. That trend has now spread to India also. Amidst this uncertainty, ETFs offer a low-cost alternative. The average expense ratio of an ETF is just around 50-70 bps compared to 200-225 bps for an active fund. The advantage is quite clear. Let us look at the best ETFs to buy in this market.
Given below is the list of the 15 best performing ETFs in India on a YTD basis. YTD (year to date) returns have been considered to reflect the FY22 volatility. Not surprisingly, out of the 100 ETFs considered for the ranking, only 20% have given positive returns on a YTD basis with the others giving negative returns.
List of top 15 performers among ETFs
ETF Name |
ETF Category |
YTD Returns (%) |
Expense Ratio (%) |
CPSE ETF |
Equity - Other |
16.11 |
0.05 |
BHARAT 22 ETF |
Equity - Other |
5.81 |
0.05 |
SBI ETF Gold |
Sector - Precious Metals |
5.19 |
- |
Quantum Gold Exchange Traded Scheme |
Sector - Precious Metals |
5.12 |
0.78 |
Nippon India ETF Gold BEES |
Sector - Precious Metals |
5.09 |
0.70 |
HDFC Gold Exchange Traded Fund |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.95 |
0.59 |
ICICI Prudential Gold ETF |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.95 |
0.50 |
UTI Gold Exchange Traded Scheme |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.83 |
- |
Axis Gold Exchange Traded Fund |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.78 |
0.53 |
IDBI Gold ETF |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.64 |
0.35 |
Aditya Birla Sun Life Gold ETF |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.55 |
0.54 |
Kotak Gold Exchange Traded Scheme |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.34 |
0.55 |
Invesco India Gold ETF |
Sector - Precious Metals |
4.07 |
0.55 |
BHARAT Bond ETF April 2023 Growth |
Short Duration |
1.01 |
- |
ICICI Prudential Liquid ETF |
Liquid |
0.82 |
0.25 |
Data Source: Morningstar
If you look at the top 15 best performing ETFs on a YTD basis, 11 out of the 15 top performers are gold ETFs, which have gained from the weakness and volatility in the equity markets. The best performers are the government sponsored PSU ETFs, which have done extremely well in the last few months.
There are no equity indices, but there are two debt oriented funds which are at the short end of the yield curve.
List of 15 bottom performers among ETFs on a YTD basis
ETF Name |
ETF Category |
YTD Returns (%) |
Expense Ratio (%) |
ICICI Prudential Midcap 150 ETF |
Mid-Cap |
-10.04 |
0.15 |
Axis Healthcare ETF INR |
Sector - Healthcare |
-10.24 |
0.22 |
ICICI Prudential Midcap Select ETF |
Mid-Cap |
-11.07 |
0.15 |
Mirae Asset Nifty Financial Services ETF |
Sector - Financial Services |
-11.65 |
0.12 |
Aditya Birla Sun Life Nifty Healthcare ETF INR |
Sector - Healthcare |
-13.33 |
0.09 |
ICICI Prudential Healthcare ETF |
Sector - Healthcare |
-13.65 |
0.15 |
ICICI Prudential Alpha Low Vol 30 ETF |
Equity - Other |
-14.03 |
0.41 |
DSP Nifty Midcap 150 Quality 50 ETF |
Equity - Other |
-14.16 |
0.30 |
Nippon India ETF Shariah BEES INR |
Equity - Other |
-15.37 |
0.88 |
Mirae Asset S&P 500 Top 50 ETF |
Global - Other |
-16.99 |
0.59 |
Motilal Oswal Nasdaq Q 50 ETF |
Global - Other |
-23.43 |
0.41 |
Mirae Hang Seng Tech ETF |
Global - Other |
-24.07 |
0.50 |
Axis Technology ETF INR |
Sector - Technology |
-25.88 |
0.22 |
ICICI Prudential IT ETF |
Sector - Technology |
-26.41 |
0.20 |
Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ETF |
Global - Other |
-31.52 |
0.51 |
Data Source: Morningstar
If you look at the 15 worst performing ETFs on a YTD basis, 4 out of the 15 worst performers are global ETFs, which have lost out on the global weakness, especially on the NASDAQ and especially the FAANG stocks.
The remaining negative performers are the domestic equity plays and these are spread across technology and healthcare funds as well as select mid-cap oriented funds. In short, the ETFs have not done too great due to the volatility in 2022 but the low cost, as can be seen in the table is a big advantage.
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