Contra funds in India
6 live funds in the Contra category, ordered by 5-year return, highest first; SBI Contra Fund leads. Funds younger than five years follow by name. Returns are for the plan each fund's page leads with, Direct where the fund has one, to each fund's latest NAV, the newest of them on 29 Oct 2026; 3 and 5 year returns are a year, compounded.
- Category median, 1 yearCategory median, 1 year. The middle return among the Contra category's funds, each over the same window to its own latest NAV, on their Direct plans.
- −7.44%Middle of 3 funds
- Category median, 3 yearsCategory median, 3 years. The middle return among the Contra category's funds, each over the same window to its own latest NAV, on their Direct plans; a year, compounded.
- +13.85%Middle of 3 funds
- Category median, 5 yearsCategory median, 5 years. The middle return among the Contra category's funds, each over the same window to its own latest NAV, on their Direct plans; a year, compounded.
- +12.68%Middle of 3 funds
Contra funds
Size is the average money the fund managed over its latest quarter. Cost is its yearly expense ratio.Filter them in the screener
SBI Contra FundSBI Mutual FundNAV₹390.077828 Oct 20261Y−9.21%3Y+10.07%5Y+13.36%Size₹47,465 CrCost0.87%
Kotak Contra FundKotak Mahindra Mutual FundNAV₹171.25001Y−7.44%3Y+13.85%5Y+12.68%Size₹5,428 CrCost0.80%
Invesco India Contra FundInvesco Mutual FundNAV₹153.32001Y−6.16%3Y+14.42%5Y+11.91%Size₹20,132 CrCost0.76%
Bandhan Contra FundBandhan Mutual FundNAV₹9.59301Y–3Y–5Y–Size₹635 CrCost2.35%
ICICI Prudential Contra FundICICI Prudential Mutual FundNAV₹9.84001Y–3Y–5Y–Size–Cost0.98%
Motilal Oswal Contra FundMotilal Oswal Mutual FundNAV₹10.29871Y–3Y–5Y–Size₹386 CrCost2.18%
Tax on contra funds
Gains on units held over 12 months are taxed at 12.5% above ₹1.25 lakh a year; gains on units held 12 months or less at 20%.
Rules in force from 23 Jul 2024, checked 27 Oct 2026. Surcharge and cess are not included.
About contra funds in India
Contra funds in India are equity mutual funds that follow a contrarian strategy: they buy shares the market has sold down or ignored, expecting them to recover over several years. SEBI treats contra as its own equity category and requires at least 80% of assets in equity.
What a contra fund does
A contrarian manager buys against the prevailing mood. The holdings are often companies or sectors that have lagged, fallen out of favour or look cheap against their own past earnings and assets. The bet is that the market has priced in too much gloom and that prices will rise as results improve.
Such a fund can look out of step with the market for long stretches, because the shares it holds may stay unpopular until the recovery shows in earnings. The strategy is judged over years rather than months.
SEBI rules for the category
A contra fund must keep at least 80% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments. SEBI's circular of 26 Feb 2026 raised this from 65%. Until that circular, a fund house could run either a contra fund or a value fund, never both. It may now run both, provided the portfolio overlap between the two is not more than 50%.
Overlap adds up, for every share both schemes hold, the lower of its two weights, and it is averaged over each quarter's daily values. Existing schemes had until 26 Aug 2026 to comply.
Contra and value funds compared
A value fund picks shares that trade below what the manager judges them to be worth, using measures such as price to earnings and price to book value. A contra fund picks shares because they are out of favour, which can include companies that are not low on those measures. The two often hold similar shares, which is why SEBI caps their overlap when one house runs both.
Taxation
With at least 65% in Indian listed shares, a contra fund is taxed as an equity fund: 20% on gains from units sold within 12 months, and 12.5% on longer-held gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year. Unlike ELSS funds, it gives no deduction on the amount invested.
How this page lists them
The page lists the live funds in the category ordered by 5-year return, highest first, with younger funds after them by name. Each row shows NAV (the price of one unit), returns, size (average money managed over the latest quarter) and cost (the yearly expense ratio).
Returns use the plan each fund's page leads with, Direct where one exists, to its latest NAV; 3-year and 5-year figures are compounded per year. Few fund houses run a contra fund, so the category medians rest on a small number of funds.