InvestVerdict· Mutual Funds

Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund

Option GROWTH IDCW

Fund basics

Launched2 Jan 2013 13.7 years of history
CategoryShort DurationSEBI classification
Plan & optionDirect · GROWTH code 119498
Benchmark no equity benchmark for this category
NAV as on27 Aug 2026source AMFI

Computed from 3,298 published NAVs between 2 Jan 2013 and 28 Aug 2026 — 13.7 years of history. Nothing here is an estimate; it is arithmetic on what the fund actually printed.

How it has moved

Return over time (%)

Fund name 1M3M6M1Y3Y5Y7Y10YSince launch
Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund Direct 0.172.402.80 6.057.696.87 7.387.588.46
Short Duration category median · 33 funds 5.797.436.51 7.20

Anything over a year is annualised (CAGR); shorter windows are absolute. The benchmark row is the index fund named below, priced daily by AMFI like every other scheme here. The category row is the median Direct plan in Short Duration — the middle fund, not a ranking, and a median rather than an average so that one mis-stated scheme cannot move it. As on 27 Aug 2026.

Risk measures

Fund name Volatility Sharpe Sortino Beta Alpha Max fall
Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund Direct 1.57 0.76 1.32 -2.75

Risk-free rate 6.5%. Beta and alpha need an index, so the benchmark's own row leaves them blank.

Risk

VolatilityDownside volatilitySharpeSortino
1.6%0.9%0.761.32

Risk-free rate 6.5%, roughly the 10-year government bond.

The worst it has been

Deepest fallTime to recoverToday, from its peak
-2.7%1 monthsAt a high
0%-1%-1%-2%2014201620182020202220242026
How far below its own record high the fund sat, on every single day it has existed. Flat along the top means it was making new highs; every dip is a stretch where somebody who bought at the wrong moment was down.

A drawdown is the fall from a previous high to the low that followed it. It is the number that decides whether somebody stays invested — a fund can have an excellent ten-year return and still have been unbearable to hold in year four.

Every one-year period it has lived through

Best yearMedian yearWorst yearLosing years
13.8%8.6%3.5%0%
Worst3.5%Median8.6%Best13.8%now
The full spread of one-year outcomes, with the fund's actual last twelve months marked. It answers the question a single number cannot: is right now an ordinary year for this fund, or an unusual one?

Rolling returns ask a fairer question than a single five-year figure: not "what did it do from this one start date", but "what happened across every start date". A fund whose worst year is −45% is a different proposition from one whose worst is −8%, even if the averages match.

Calendar years

4.5%20214.9%20227.6%20238.6%20248.4%20253.6%2026InvestVerdict
Each year on its own, January to December. Losing years hang below the line — averages hide them, and the years somebody actually had to sit through are the ones that decide whether they stayed.

If you had run a SIP

₹10,000 every month for five years — ₹600,000 invested in all — would be worth ₹722,486 today, an XIRR of 7.37% a year.

XIRR, not CAGR. A SIP's money arrives over sixty months, so most of it has been invested for far less than five years — which is why this figure normally sits below the five-year CAGR above in a rising market, and above it in a falling one. It is the return the investor got, not the return the fund got.

What it actually holds

The real portfolio the AMC filed with AMFI. Nothing here is estimated — when a fund has no filing in our store the section simply does not appear. A fund is its holdings; the returns above are only what those holdings did.

Asset allocation

102.67%Debt
5.19%REITs / InvITs
0.52%AIF Units

A fund's risk starts here — how much of it is even in the market — before any question of which stocks or which sectors. Cash is not idleness; it is the manager's choice not to be invested, and it shows up as a drag in a rising market and a cushion in a falling one.

Portfolio aggregates

Large
Mid
Small
Unclassified 108.4%108.4%Unclassified 108.4%
AMFI's half-yearly ranking: 1–100 Large, 101–250 Mid, 251+ Small. The rest is debt, cash, foreign holdings or fund units, which AMFI does not rank.

Concentration

Number of stocks90
Top 5 stocks27.99%
Top 10 stocks43.93%
Top 20 stocks66.35%
Largest single holding7.89%
Largest sectorICRA AAA · 31.14%
Number of sectors13
Effective stocks31.9
Cash & equivalents-8.39%

Counting positions overstates diversification. The effective-stocks figure is the honest count: a portfolio can hold seventy names and still have most of its money in twenty.

Sector allocation

ICRA AAA — 31.1%CRISIL AAA — 29.5%Sovereign — 14.9%CRISIL AA — 10.3%CARE AAA — 4.9%CRISIL AAA(SO) — 4.9%ICRA AA+ — 4.8%Other — 8.0%ICRA AAA31.1%CRISIL AAA29.5%Sovereign14.9%CRISIL AA10.3%CARE AAA4.9%CRISIL AAA(SO)4.9%ICRA AA+4.8%Other8.0%
Where the equity money sits, by industry.

Largest holdings

Top 10 are 43.9% of the fund. A high number means a concentrated portfolio — fewer names doing more of the work, for better and for worse.

7.35% Bharti Telecom Limited (15/10/2027) 7.89%
7.17% Tata Capital Housing Finance Limited (21/05/2030) 5.86%
7.48% National Bank For Agriculture and Rural Development (15/09/2028) 5.20%
6.65% Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited (20/05/2030) 5.12%
Siddhivinayak Securitisation Trust 2025-1 (28/09/2030) 3.92%
Jubilant Bevco Ltd (31/05/2028) (ZCB) 3.64%
Jtpm Metal Traders Pvt Ltd (29/09/2028) (ZCB) 3.29%
7.96% Embassy Office Parks REIT (27/09/2027) 3.13%
9.31% Vedanta Limited (03/12/2027) 3.09%
State Government Securities (03/09/2033) 2.79%
Government of India (17/04/2030) 2.57%
Government of India (07/07/2040) 2.52%

Disclosed holdings from the AMC's AMFI filing, largest first. A portfolio is filed monthly and shifts between filings — this is the most recent one loaded, not a live book.

How it compares in its category

Against the Short Duration Direct schemes with the highest three-year return. Same category, same plan — the only comparison that means anything. The list re-sorts itself as returns move; it is an ordering by one number, not a view on which fund anyone should hold.

Return window
Scheme Return Alpha Beta Volatility Sharpe Max fall
Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund · this scheme 7.7% 1.6% 0.76 -2.7%
ICICI Prudential Short Term Fund ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund 7.9% 1.6% 0.88 -3.4%
Mahindra Manulife Short Term Fund Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund 7.8% 0.9% 1.43 -1.1%
Axis Short Term Fund Axis Mutual Fund 7.8% 1.4% 0.90 -2.6%
Bandhan Short Term Fund Bandhan Mutual Fund 7.7% 1.4% 0.88 -2.5%
Nippon India Short Term Fund Nippon India Mutual Fund 7.7% 1.4% 0.87 -2.9%
BANK OF INDIA SHORT TERM FUND Bank of India Mutual Fund 7.7% 6.1% 0.19 -19.8%
HDFC Short Term Fund HDFC Mutual Fund 7.5% 1.3% 0.79 -2.7%
Groww Short Term Fund Groww Mutual Fund 7.5% 1.0% 1.04 -1.2%

Alpha and beta are against the category index. Max fall is the deepest peak-to-trough drop in each fund's own history, so a longer-running fund has had more chances to record a bad one. Click a column to sort. This is a sort, not a ranking, and nothing here is a recommendation.

What a Short Duration scheme is

Portfolio duration of 1 to 3 years.

The middle of the debt range. A rate rise hurts for a while and is then earned back at the higher rate — which is why the holding period matters more here than the headline return.

Who it suits. Money with a two- to three-year horizon.

How long money should stay. 2 to 3 years.

Compare this scheme with others →

Questions people ask

What is the NAV of Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund — Direct Plan — GROWTH?

₹55.1789 as on 27 Aug 2026, from AMFI's daily NAV file. NAV is declared once each business day after markets close, so the figure here is the most recent one published.

What is the difference between the Direct and Regular plan of Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund?

They hold the identical portfolio, run by the same manager. A Regular plan pays a distributor commission out of the fund, inside its expense ratio — commonly 0.5% to 1.2% a year more than Direct. That difference is charged on the whole balance, every year, so it compounds: on ₹1,00,000 held ten years a gap of 1.5 percentage points is roughly ₹1.4 lakh of ending value. Direct is the same fund without the commission.

What does the Growth option mean?

Growth reinvests everything the fund earns back into the NAV. Nothing is paid out, so the NAV rises with returns and you are taxed only when you sell. For anybody who does not need income from the investment, Growth is the simpler and usually the more tax-efficient option.

What kind of scheme is this?

Portfolio duration of 1 to 3 years. The middle of the debt range. A rate rise hurts for a while and is then earned back at the higher rate — which is why the holding period matters more here than the headline return.

How long should money stay in it?

Typically 2 to 3 years. Money with a two- to three-year horizon.