₹1 lakh investment in this mutual fund at launch would have grown to ₹48.5 lakh. Check how

Investment in equity could grow by massive proportions if you stay invested over a long period. When you remain invested for a long time, the returns delivered in the first few years get added to the principal, which increases the scope of returns in the future years.

Here, we handpicked one mutual fund, ICICI Prudential Value Fund, to illustrate how compounding works and how a humble investment of ₹1 lakh 21 years ago would have risen significantly by now. ICICI Prudential Value Fund was launched on 16 August 2004.

For the unversed, value mutual funds refer to those funds which identify stocks that are currently undervalued but are expected to perform well over time as their value is unlocked.

Investing in this mutual fund

If someone had invested ₹1 lakh at the launch of this mutual fund (i.e., in August 2004), the amount would have swelled to ₹48.5 lakh by 31 October 2025, delivering an annualised return of 20.1%, according to information on ICICI Prudential AMC's website.

Additionally, if someone had invested ₹1 lakh three years ago, the investment would have grown to ₹1.77 lakh by now. In the past five years, an investment of ₹1 lakh would have swelled to ₹2.66 lakh.

Investing via SIPs would have been impressive as well. Since inception, a monthly SIP of ₹10,000 would have resulted in a total investment of ₹25.5 lakh, which would have grown to ₹2.40 crore as on 31 October 2025.

This mutual fund has the highest allocation of RIL (7.23%). This is followed by Infosys (6.91%), HDFC Bank (6.48%), ICICI Bank (6.31%), TCS (4.53%), Axis Bank (4.49%) and Sun Pharma (4.46%).

This mutual fund has an AUM of ₹55,444 crore. The fund managers of the scheme are Masoomi Jhurmarvala, Dharmesh Kakkad, and Sankaran Naren.

Sankaran Naren, ED & CIO, and fund manager, ICICI Prudential Value Fund, believes that when valuations are elevated and indices around the world are trading close to their all-time highs, an investor can adopt two approaches to investing. First, stick to asset allocation and second, opt for value investing. This is because, even amidst the trending market, there will be periods of underperformance in certain pockets, creating attractive entry points.

Note: This story is for informational purposes only. Please speak to a SEBI-registered investment advisor before making any investment-related decision.

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