Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund vs Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund

Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund is an actively managed large & mid cap fund scheme: a fund manager picks and weights the holdings, and charges a higher expense ratio for doing so. Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund does the opposite — it simply tracks NIFTY LargeMidcap 250 and charges very little. This page settles the question that actually matters before you invest in either: over the periods we can measure, did the active fund earn its fee?

Both sides are compared on their official AMFI NAV history (direct plan, growth option) — the same daily data the fund houses publish. Using the index fund rather than the raw NIFTY LargeMidcap 250 level is deliberate: a tracking fund's NAV already includes its expense ratio and tracking error, so this is the return an investor could genuinely have captured, not a theoretical index number nobody can buy.

Over the 3-year period Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund trailed its benchmark tracker: +15.40% annualised against +15.82% for Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund — a shortfall of about 0.42 percentage points a year. An investor who had simply bought Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund and done nothing would have finished ahead over this stretch, while paying a lower fee.

In rupee terms, ₹1,00,000 invested 3 years ago would have become about ₹1,53,660 in Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund and ₹1,55,356 in Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund — a difference of roughly ₹1,696 on a ₹1,00,000 investment. Scale that to the size of your actual SIP or lumpsum to see what the choice is worth to you.

The shortfall is consistent rather than a single bad patch: Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund trails on every horizon we can measure (3-year: +15.40% vs +15.82% · 1-year: +2.27% vs +4.52%). Persistent underperformance across multiple periods is the pattern that most often leads investors to switch to a low-cost tracker.

On risk the two have behaved similarly over the trailing year — annualised volatility of 14.7% for Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund against 14.7% for Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund. On worst falls, the deepest drawdown in our stored history is −18.3% for Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund against −18.9% for Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund.

One factor sits outside the returns above: cost. An index fund tracking NIFTY LargeMidcap 250 typically charges a fraction of what an actively managed large & mid cap fund scheme does, and that difference is deducted every year whether the manager performs or not. Over a long holding period a persistent fee gap compounds into a meaningful sum, which is why an active fund needs to beat its benchmark by more than its extra cost simply to break even with the tracker.

Which to choose comes down to what you believe about the next decade rather than the last one. Index funds guarantee you the benchmark's return minus a small fee; active funds offer the possibility of more, with the risk of less and a higher certain cost. Use the growth chart above to see how each behaved through actual market cycles, and consider a SEBI-registered adviser before switching. This comparison is informational and is not investment advice.