Mutual Fund Overlap Calculator

You can check mutual fund portfolio overlap by using our free online comparison calculator. Search and select the mutual fund schemes you own or plan to buy, enter your investment amounts or percentage allocations, and click Analyze Overlap. The tool analyzes the latest monthly portfolio disclosures from AMCs, generating a pairwise overlap percentage matrix, a consolidated stock holdings table, and sector and market-cap exposure breakdowns.

As a general rule of thumb for equity portfolios:

• Under 30% Overlap: Good. Indicates the funds complement each other and provide genuine diversification.
• 30% to 50% Overlap: Moderate. Worth reviewing common top-10 stock holdings to check for unintended single-stock concentration.
• Over 50% Overlap: High. Indicates substantial redundancy where you are paying multiple fund management fees for essentially the same stocks. Consolidating into one fund is usually recommended.

The primary risks of mutual fund overlap include:

• Concentration Risk: Unintended heavy exposure to a few dominant stocks (like HDFC Bank or Reliance). If those companies underperform, your entire portfolio suffers simultaneously.
• Fee Drag (Cost Inefficiency): Paying multiple active expense ratios (TER) to different fund managers who are buying the exact same underlying companies.
• Illusion of Diversification: Believing that owning 8 or 10 funds protects your capital, when in reality their portfolios mirror each other and move in lockstep.

If your portfolio shows high overlap between two funds, take these steps:

• Do Not Panic Sell: Immediately liquidating units can trigger exit loads and short-term capital gains tax.
• Stop Future SIPs: Pause or stop fresh SIP installments in the weaker-performing or higher-cost fund.
• Redirect New Capital: Direct your monthly investments into a complementary, non-overlapping category (such as a Mid Cap, Small Cap, or International fund).
• Phase Out Gradually: Once existing units cross 12 months, redeem them tax-efficiently within your annual ₹1.25 Lakh LTCG exemption threshold.

To eliminate overlap tax-efficiently:

• Let Units Age Past 1 Year: For equity funds, holding units for more than 12 months qualifies gains as Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) rather than the higher 20% Short-Term Capital Gains (STCG) tax.
• Utilize the Annual LTCG Exemption: Under Indian tax rules, long-term capital gains on equity mutual funds up to ₹1.25 Lakh per financial year are completely tax-free. You can redeem redundant units in annual tranches up to this limit.
• Check Exit Load Periods: Most equity schemes charge a 1% exit load if redeemed within 365 days. Waiting until the exit load period expires avoids unnecessary penalties.

Holding both usually results in 65% to 85% mutual fund overlap. Under SEBI regulations, active Large Cap funds must invest at least 80% of their assets in the top 100 stocks, meaning their investable universe largely overlaps with the 50 stocks in Nifty 50. Because active funds charge a significantly higher Total Expense Ratio (TER) of 0.70%–1.50% compared to 0.10%–0.20% for index funds, holding both often means paying active fees for index-like returns (a phenomenon known as closet indexing). Most investors are better off choosing one or the other.

The difference comes down to SEBI mandates:

• Multi Cap Funds: Strictly required to hold at least 25% in Large Cap, 25% in Mid Cap, and 25% in Small Cap at all times.
• Flexi Cap Funds: Completely dynamic with no market-cap restrictions. Most Flexi Cap managers allocate 65% to 75% into Large Caps for stability.

As a result, pairing a Flexi Cap fund with a Large Cap fund often produces high overlap (40%–60%), whereas pairing a Multi Cap fund with a Large Cap fund tends to produce lower overlap due to the mandatory 50% mid-and-small-cap allocation.

The Large Cap universe in India is legally restricted to just 100 companies (1st to 100th by market capitalization). Consequently, all large-cap fund managers are forced to fish in the same small pond. In contrast, the Small Cap universe consists of over 500 listed companies (251st company onwards). Different fund managers pick completely different small-cap businesses based on proprietary research, resulting in low typical overlap (often under 15% to 20%) between two small-cap funds from different AMCs.

Under SEBI categorization rules in India, mutual fund schemes are governed by strict portfolio mandates. Categories like Large Cap, Mid Cap, and Small Cap require the fund to invest at least 80% of its total assets in stocks belonging to that specific market-cap basket (or 65% for certain thematic/equity categories). Because schemes within the same category must select from the same legally defined pool of stocks, mutual funds in the same category naturally have high overlap.

Arbitrage funds buy equities in the cash market and simultaneously sell offsetting single-stock futures contracts in the derivatives market to lock in the price spread. Because every physical stock position is 100% hedged, the fund carries zero directional market risk and behaves like a short-term debt instrument with equity taxation. Since arbitrage holdings do not add equity market volatility or directional stock concentration to your portfolio, our calculator treats arbitrage pairs as risk-neutral (0.0% directional overlap).

The Effective Number of Stocks measures your portfolio's actual diversification using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). Even if your combined portfolio holds 300 unique stocks, if your top 5 holdings (e.g. HDFC Bank, Reliance, ICICI Bank) account for 35% of your total capital, your portfolio risk behaves as if you only hold a fraction of those stocks.

For instance, a portfolio with 250 total stocks might have an Effective Number of Stocks of just 65. A higher ratio indicates genuine, well-balanced diversification, while a low number signals high single-stock concentration risk.

For most retail investors, holding 3 to 5 well-chosen mutual funds is the optimal sweet spot. A balanced portfolio typically includes:

• 1 Core Equity Fund (Flexi Cap or Nifty 50 Index Fund)
• 1 Mid Cap Fund (for capital appreciation)
• 1 Small Cap Fund (for long-term aggressive growth)
• 1 Debt or Arbitrage Fund (for emergency reserves and liquidity)

Holding more than 6 to 8 equity funds rarely increases returns; instead, it leads to "portfolio bloat", high overlap, and average index-like returns weighed down by multiple expense ratios.

You should check your mutual fund overlap once or twice a year, or whenever you are planning to:

• Start a new SIP in a new fund scheme.
• Invest a lump sum bonus or windfall.
• Consolidate an old portfolio that has accumulated multiple schemes over time.

Because fund managers publish fresh portfolio disclosures on the 10th of every month, checking semi-annually ensures your portfolio remains diversified without requiring stressful day-to-day monitoring.

Direct and Regular plans of the same mutual fund scheme hold 100% identical underlying stock portfolios, weights, and managers. The only difference is that Regular plans charge an extra 0.5% to 1.2% annual distributor commission, which lowers their NAV. Because stock-level portfolio overlap, sector exposures, and concentration risks are mathematically identical, our tool standardizes on Direct Plans to eliminate duplicate search entries and prevent UI clutter.

In the Consolidated Holdings table below your analysis, use the filter toggle buttons directly above the table to switch between:

• All Holdings: Every stock held across your selected funds.
• Overlapping Only: Only stocks owned by two or more funds (true redundant exposure).
• Shared by All Funds: Stocks that appear in every single fund you selected.

You can also click the Overlapping Stocks summary card at the top to instantly jump to the common holdings view.

If you cannot find a specific mutual fund scheme in our search dropdown, visit our Request Fund page and submit the scheme name. Our automated pipeline ingests fresh portfolio disclosures directly from AMC statutory filings each month and will prioritize adding missing schemes.