Last updated 1 July 2026 · vs April 2026 · How the score is calculated
Contra funds are a sub-category of value funds that explicitly bet against current market consensus. When the market loves IT, a contra fund underweights IT. When the market hates metals, a contra fund overweights metals. The thesis is that consensus positioning is most crowded exactly when it is most wrong, and that buying what everyone is selling (and selling what everyone is buying) generates alpha over full cycles. The category is small in India (fewer than 10 funds) and dominated by one house (SBI). The risk is timing: a contra fund can be wrong for 2-3 years at a stretch, and the drawdowns feel worse than for a regular value fund because you are underwater on positions the market is actively rejecting. How to read this table. Treat the 5-year return as the only signal that matters. A 3-year window is too short to know whether the manager's call is right or merely early.
Each Contra Fund fund in the table is scored on a blend of five factors: 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year returns, the 3-year Sharpe ratio, and the 3-year maximum drawdown. The 5-year return carries the heaviest weight; the 1-year return carries the lightest, because a single year is mostly noise. Funds with less than three years of history are kept out of the 3Y / 5Y windows but are still listed if they have a 1-year track record.
The underlying NAV data is sourced nightly from the AMFI daily NAV file and the AMC factsheets. The score is re-run every month after the latest upload. Two funds with a score within 5 points of each other are essentially interchangeable for retail purposes; pick from the top 3-5 names in the list, not just the top 1. The full formula, weights, and edge cases are in the rankings methodology post.
| Rank | Scheme | Score |
|---|---|---|
1— | Kotak Contra Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund · Regular | 80.5 |
2↑1 | Invesco India Contra Fund - Growth Invesco Mutual Fund · Regular | 54.2 |
3↓1 | SBI CONTRA FUND - REGULAR PLAN -GROWTH SBI Mutual Fund · Regular | 15.0 |
Rankings based on data up to 1 July 2026. Direct plans and regular plans are scored separately; this table shows the regular plan of each fund. For educational purposes only, not investment advice. Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Read the full disclaimer.
Contra funds are dominated by a single house, so 'how these differ' mostly comes down to a single manager's calls. Compare its 5-year return to the BSE 500, not to other contra funds, to see whether the strategy is working.
FinvestR Research Desk
Research team, FinvestR
The FinvestR research desk produces the monthly fund rankings and the underlying scoring engine. The team includes AMFI-registered distributors (ARN-142502) and NISM-Series-V-A certified research analysts. Plain English, no product pitches, full methodology on every page.
AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor · ARN-142502 · NISM-Series-V-A: Mutual Fund Distributors
Last updated 1 July 2026. The full ranking methodology and the data sources are published in the July 2026 rankings post. Past performance does not indicate future results.
Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Read all scheme-related documents carefully before investing. FinvestR Capital is registered with AMFI as a Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN-142502). The rankings on this page are research output and not personalised investment advice. Consult a SEBI- registered investment advisor for advice tailored to your situation.