Same portfolio, different price: India's look-alike index funds
Twenty schemes from eleven fund houses hold the Nifty 50, with portfolios more than 90% identical. What separates them is mostly what they charge, and over twenty years that difference is worth lakhs.
By Meet Shah · Published
How we found them
For every index fund, ETF and smart-beta fund in our data we compared its latest portfolio with every other one, stock by stock. The measure is simple: for each stock two funds share, take the smaller of the two weights, and add them up. Two funds that track the same index score close to 100%: SBI's Nifty 50 ETF and LIC MF's Nifty 50 index fund overlap by 99.9%. Closely related indices score lower: the Nifty 50 and the Sensex overlap by 83%, Bank Nifty and Nifty Private Bank by 68%. We drew the line at 90%.
Of the 355 schemes categorised as passive, 260 fall into 53 groups of two or more funds holding what is, for practical purposes, the same portfolio. Together they manage about ₹8.1 lakh crore.
The biggest groups
| Portfolio (largest scheme) | Schemes | Fund houses | Combined AUM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nifty 50 (SBI Nifty 50 ETF) | 20 | 11 | ₹4,38,699 Cr |
| Nifty Next 50 (ICICI Prudential Nifty Next 50 Index Fund) | 17 | 10 | ₹36,077 Cr |
| Nifty Midcap 150 (Nippon India ETF Nifty Midcap 150) | 16 | 9 | ₹9,488 Cr |
| BSE Sensex (SBI BSE Sensex ETF) | 15 | 9 | ₹2,29,821 Cr |
| Nifty Bank (Nippon India ETF Nifty Bank BeES) | 12 | 7 | ₹26,710 Cr |
| Nifty IT (Nippon India ETF Nifty IT) | 11 | 7 | ₹5,319 Cr |
| Nifty Smallcap 250 (Nippon India Nifty Smallcap 250 Index Fund) | 11 | 7 | ₹5,421 Cr |
| Nifty Private Bank (ICICI Prudential Nifty Private Bank ETF) | 10 | 7 | ₹4,419 Cr |
Most fund houses run their own version of each popular index, and many run it twice: once as an ETF and once as an index fund. The Nifty 50 group alone has ten ETFs and ten index funds.
What actually differs: the price
When two funds hold the same stocks in the same proportions, their returns before costs are nearly identical. The expense ratio is then most of the difference, because it is taken out of the fund's value every day, whether the market rises or falls.
The spread is wide. SBI Nifty 50 ETF, the largest scheme in the Nifty 50 group, charged about 0.04% a year in September 2026. Nippon India Index Fund – Nifty 50 Plan charged about 0.13% on its direct plan. LIC MF Nifty 50 Index Fund charged 0.56% on its direct plan. All three hold the Nifty 50.
| Expense ratio | Value after 20 years |
|---|---|
| 0.13% a year | ₹94.25 lakh |
| 0.56% a year | ₹87.26 lakh |
| Difference | ₹6.99 lakh |
A gap of 0.43 percentage points looks trivial on a factsheet. Compounded over two decades on the same portfolio, it is about 7% of the final amount.
Cost is not the only difference
- ETF or index fund. An ETF trades on the exchange like a share. You need a demat account, you pay brokerage, and you buy at the market price, which can sit slightly above or below the fund's value. An index fund is bought from the fund house at the day's NAV and suits monthly SIPs more easily.
- Direct or regular plan. The same index fund comes in a direct plan and a regular plan that pays a distributor's commission out of a higher expense ratio. Everything quoted above is for direct plans.
- Tracking error. How closely a fund follows its index after costs varies with its size, cash management and trading. A fund that is cheap but tracks poorly can lose what it saves.
- Size and liquidity. For an ETF, trading volume decides how close to its value you can buy and sell. The biggest schemes in each group are usually the most liquid.
Check any index fund in seconds
Every fund page in one of these 53 groups now lists the whole group side by side, with each scheme's expense ratio and AUM, cheapest first. Open SBI Nifty 50 ETF to see all twenty Nifty 50 schemes, or search for the index fund you own. Because these pages are near-copies of each other, only the largest scheme in each group is offered to search engines; the rest stay one click away for anyone comparing them.