Authors:
B. J. Ronald , S. Glenn Mathew Joseph, Prasanna Kumar, Chou-Yi Hsu, Anum Mehmood
Addresses:
Department of Commerce, Loyola College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 21uco232@loyolacollege.edu, 21uco207@loyolacollege.edu, drprasannakumar@loyolacollege.edu. Department of Pharmacy, Chia Nan University of Science and Technology, Tainan City, Taiwan, 53160@mail.cnu.edu.tw. Department of Food Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China, 184311@hainanu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The Mutual fund market has grown phenomenally in the last decade. A major aspect that draws in so many investors is the consistent performance of these mutual funds. Sustainable investing has gained popularity in recent years; this approach to investing involves the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions; sustainable investing has gained significant traction, resulting in the investing of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) Mutual funds. This research evaluates the performance and risk characteristics of ESG mutual funds and the consistency of their performance. The study analyses the performance of ESG mutual funds in terms of Annual return, standard deviation, and Sharpe ratio. Then, it is compared with the average returns of the benchmark indices to show whether the fund has outperformed or underperformed compared to the benchmark returns. The data regarding the benchmark indices is taken from the respective official websites. In this study, the Quant ESG equity fund has emerged as a top performer with the highest returns. ICICI Prudential ESG Fund has shown good risk-adjusted returns and low standard deviation(risk). Even though some ESG funds have underperformed when compared to the benchmark returns, the majority of the ESG mutual funds have outperformed their benchmark indices. This study concludes that as there is an uptrend toward sustainable investing and more investors are becoming aware of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds, there will continue to be an uptrend in the ESG fund market.
Keywords: Comparative Study; ESG Indices; ESG Mutual Funds; Indian ESG Mutual Funds; Performance Analysis; Socially Responsible Investing; Sustainable Investing; Sustainable Development Goals.
Received: 16/07/2023, Revised: 11/09/2023, Accepted: 25/10/2023, Published: 07/03/2024
AVE Trends in Intelligent Social Letters, 2024 Vol. 1 No. 1 , Pages: 13-24