InvestVerdictMutual Fund Research

HDFC Defence Fund

Fund basics

Launched2 Jun 2023 3.4 years of history
CategorySectoral / ThematicSEBI classification
Plan & optionDirect · Growth Option code 151750
BenchmarkNifty 500 used for alpha & beta below
NAV as on27 Oct 2026source AMFI

Computed from 799 published NAVs between 2 Jun 2023 and 28 Aug 2026 — 3.2 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
HDFC Defence Fund Direct 5.899.9624.59 37.0639.25— ——42.68
Nifty 500 benchmark 0.874.312.15 5.2012.4911.41 ——15.49
Sectoral / Thematic category median · 142 funds ——— -5.6313.0410.23 —13.74—

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 Sectoral / Thematic — 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 Oct 2026.

Risk measures

Fund name Volatility Sharpe Sortino Beta Alpha Max fall
HDFC Defence Fund Direct 31.11 1.05 2.03 1.61 22.32 -34.54
Nifty 500 benchmark 15.22 0.39 0.58 —— -37.31

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

Against its benchmark

Regressed on the 36 months this fund and Nifty 500 (via Motilal Oswal Nifty 500 Index Fund) both have. Alpha is Jensen's — the return left over after the market move this fund's own beta would predict.

AlphaBetaR²Fund vs indexUp captureDown captureTracking errorInformation ratioTreynor
22.32%1.6162%25.93%204%122%21.25%1.2219.72

Up and down capture are the pair worth reading together: a fund that takes 95% of the rises but only 80% of the falls is doing something a headline CAGR will never show you.

Risk

VolatilityDownside volatilitySharpeSortino
31.1%16.1%1.052.03

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

The worst it has been

Deepest fallTime to recoverToday, from its peak
-34.5%3 months-1.3%
0%-13%-25%-38%20242026
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
146.3%22.2%-1.5%1%
Worst-1.5%Median22.2%Best146.3%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

41.9%202410.7%202531.5%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.

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

98.27%Equity
1.73%Cash & Equivalents

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

43.82%Large
25.03%Mid
29.01%Small
Large Cap 43.8%43.8%Mid Cap 25.0%25.0%Small Cap 29.0%29.0%Unclassified 0.3%Large Cap 43.8%Mid Cap 25.0%Small Cap 29.0%Unclassified 0.3%
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 stocks24
Top 5 stocks57.11%
Top 10 stocks79.27%
Top 20 stocks97.38%
Largest single holding14.87%
Largest sectorAerospace & Defense · 46.11%
Number of sectors9
Effective stocks11.9
Cash & equivalents1.73%

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

Aerospace & Defense — 46.1%Auto Components — 18.2%Chemicals & Petrochemicals — 13.1%Agricultural, Commercial & Construction Vehicles — 6.2%Electrical Equipment — 5.1%Automobiles — 4.7%Industrial Manufacturing — 4.1%Other — 2.6%Aerospace & Defense46.1%Auto Components18.2%Chemicals & Petrochemicals13.1%Agricultural, Commercial …6.2%Electrical Equipment5.1%Automobiles4.7%Industrial Manufacturing4.1%Other2.6%
Where the equity money sits, by industry.

Largest holdings

Top 10 are 79.3% of the fund. A high number means a concentrated portfolio — fewer names doing more of the work, for better and for worse.

Bharat Electronics Ltd. 14.87%
Bharat Forge Ltd. 12.91%
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited 12.61%
Solar Industries India Ltd. 10.28%
Astra Microwave Products Ltd. 6.44%
BEML Limited 5.11%
MTAR Technologies Limited 5.09%
Eicher Motors Ltd. 4.67%
Bosch Limited 4.10%
Bharat Dynamics Limited 3.19%
Cyient DLM Limited 3.18%
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd 3.17%

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.

What the manager did last month

Between the filing of 30 Jun 2026 and 31 Jul 2026. A position grows for two reasons — the manager bought more, or the price went up — and only the first is a decision. The share count is what separates them, because it moves only when somebody trades.

Bought₹362 cr shares added, valued at this filing
Sold₹105 cr shares reduced or exited
New positions2 stocks not held a month ago
Sold out of0 stocks fully exited
Price move of what it held +0.17% the market's doing, not the manager's

Swipe the table sideways for share counts, price change and values.

Stock Shares traded Change in shares Change in price Value of the trade₹ crore Position now₹ crore
New positiondid not hold this a month ago 2
Cochin Shipyard Ltd. 300,000 entered — 42.7 42.7
INDO-MIM Limited 330,288 entered — 25.6 25.6
Added tobought more shares than last month 7
Bharat Electronics Ltd. 2,500,130 +6.6% -5.8% 97.0 1,571
IDEAFORGE TECHNOLOGY LIMITED 896,226 +281.6% +7.3% 78.4 106
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited 125,000 +4.6% +6.1% 58.1 1,325
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd 210,400 +16.3% -4.6% 50.1 357
Tata Motors Limited 1,000,000 +90.9% +3.3% 43.7 91.7
Bosch Limited 4,776 +6.4% +3.0% 19.6 328
Bharat Forge Ltd. 66,532 +0.9% +2.6% 14.6 1,588
Trimmedcut the share count, without selling out 3
AEQUS LIMITED 3,500,756 -87.5% -2.3% 80.2 11.5
Cyient DLM Limited 353,116 -6.4% +45.6% 23.7 346
Power Mech Projects Ltd. 4,025 -1.3% -7.1% 1.0 77.0

Only stocks and fund units are listed. Treasury bills, repo and money-market lines roll over every month by design — they are larger in rupees than most equity trades and are not decisions, so they are summarised as cash above rather than listed as activity. Share counts and values are the fund house's own filing. What a position cost when it was first bought is in no monthly disclosure, so a value here is what the shares were worth at the later filing, not what was paid.

How it compares in its category

Against the Sectoral / Thematic 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
HDFC Defence Fund HDFC Mutual Fund · this scheme 39.2% 22.3% 1.61 31.1% 1.05 -34.5%
Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund Nippon India Mutual Fund 61.1% 51.0% 0.41 36.4% 1.50 -44.8%
HDFC Pharma and Healthcare Fund HDFC Mutual Fund — 22.4% 0.71 16.2% 1.60 -14.9%
Nippon India Japan Equity Fund Nippon India Mutual Fund 22.8% 13.2% 0.40 14.3% 1.14 -29.9%
Aditya Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund 21.0% 12.3% 0.27 13.3% 1.09 -27.5%
HDFC Transportation and Logistics Fund HDFC Mutual Fund 27.8% 14.7% 1.05 18.5% 1.15 -23.5%
SBI HEALTHCARE OPPORTUNITIES FUND SBI Mutual Fund 24.9% 14.4% 0.64 14.4% 1.28 -30.5%
Franklin Asian Equity Fund Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund 24.4% 13.9% 0.59 17.4% 1.03 -40.2%
LIC MF Healthcare Fund LIC Mutual Fund 23.3% 13.0% 0.74 15.8% 1.06 -15.1%

Alpha and beta are against Nifty 500. 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 Sectoral / Thematic scheme is

At least 80% in one sector or theme.

The same concentration risk as any sector fund. Themes are usually launched after the theme has already run, which is why the average investor's return in these funds trails the funds' own published returns.

Who it suits. A small, deliberate satellite position — rarely a core holding.

How long money should stay. Through a full cycle.

Compare this scheme with others →

Questions people ask

What is the NAV of HDFC Defence Fund — Direct Plan — Growth Option?

₹29.1660 as on 27 Oct 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 HDFC Defence 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?

At least 80% in one sector or theme. The same concentration risk as any sector fund. Themes are usually launched after the theme has already run, which is why the average investor's return in these funds trails the funds' own published returns.

How long should money stay in it?

Typically Through a full cycle. A small, deliberate satellite position — rarely a core holding.