emerged as the top performer among all equity funds — including sectoral and thematic — in May, delivering a return of 21.69%. This was out of a universe of approximately 558 funds during the period.
Experts attribute this performance to a sharp rally in Taiwanese technology and , which benefited from strong global demand for electronics.
“Over the past few months, international markets have experienced increased volatility, largely driven by country-specific events. In China, the announcement of a major stimulus package in late September 2024 sparked a sharp market rally. Similarly, in the U.S., post-election speculations, tariff wars, trade deals, etc. ,increased market activity,” Chirag Muni, Executive Director, shared with ETMutualFunds.
According to Chirag Muni, short-term rallies tend to be volatile and unsustainable as they are often event-driven. Over the long term, Indian markets have outperformed international funds, offering higher return potential and a broader range of investment categories.”Indian markets offer easier access to data and are simpler to track, making them more suitable for investors. Given the complexity of global markets, well-diversified domestic funds remain the better choice for investors,” he added.
Another expert highlights four key factors influencing a fund’s performance: returns relative to the underlying index, currency movements, the performance of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar, and the fund manager’s value addition.
There is a high correlation of stocks with the US Nasdaq Composite index as TAIEX’s 50–60% weightage is in semiconductors and electronics (e.g., TSMC, Hon Hai), aligning closely with the Nasdaq’s tech-heavy composition, he added.
“Both indices are highly sensitive to and U.S. tech sentiment, amplifying their correlation. For the month of May, Nasdaq gained 9.56%, which led to accelerated gains in Taiwan-based technology companies in the portfolio,” Atul Shinghal, Founder and CEO, Scripbox, shared with ETMutualFunds.
As per the last data available, Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund had an AUM of Rs 276 crore as on April 30, 2025. Launched in December 2021, the scheme is managed by Kinjal Desai.
The primary investment objective of Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund is to provide long-term capital appreciation to investors by primarily investing in equity and equity-related securities of companies listed on the recognised stock exchanges of Taiwan, and the secondary objective is to generate consistent returns by investing in debt and money market securities of India.
There were around 65 international funds in the mentioned time period, of which 11 offered double-digit returns, 52 offered single-digit returns, and only two gave negative returns.
Invesco India – Invesco Global Consumer Trends FoF offered the second highest return of around 15.70%, followed by DSP US Flexible Equity FoF and US Technology Equity FOF, which gave 13.90% and 12.09% returns respectively in May.
Among the double-digit performers, the last five were Nasdaq-based funds, which gave returns ranging from 10.25% to 11.47% in May.
Post looking at the performance of these international funds, Chirag Muni advises that investors should avoid reacting to short-term trends and instead focus on fundamentals and long-term growth, as over the longer horizon, Indian markets have delivered stronger performance.
On the other hand, Shinghal believes that the technology sector, as represented by the Nasdaq Composite Index, remains the main driver for the performance of Taiwanese Stocks, and the outlook for the technology sector remains positive in the long run as current and future innovations are either driven or enabled by this sector.
In the current calendar year so far, international funds have offered up to 29% return with Edelweiss Europe Dynamic Equity Offshore Fund being the top performer with 29.12% return in 2025 so far. Mirae Asset Hang Seng TECH ETF FoF has given a 20.17% return in the current calendar year so far. In 2025 so far, Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund has offered a negative return of 3.47%.
Shinghal of Scripbox believes that global equities outside the U.S. and India are currently trading at more attractive valuations. Historically, non-U.S. markets have outperformed during periods of U.S. dollar weakness. “Hence, International Funds (especially Non-US) should get allocation in an Investor’s portfolio depending on risk appetite,” he added.
Whereas the expert from Anand Rathi Wealth Limited firmly recommends not to invest in international funds, but if one looks for global diversification in the portfolio, can explore only upto 5 -10% of the overall portfolio, however it is important to look at the risk adjusted return potential of the respective country before investing.
“Investors can consider investing across the range of domestic diversified equity funds to get exposure across the range of categories and sectors to generate good alpha and returns in the long term,” Chirag added.