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High Beta Leads Factor Investing Returns Over One Year
Factor investing means choosing stocks because they share certain traits.
These traits can include strong recent performance, low prices, good business quality, or large price movements.
In the year ending 31 July 2026, High Beta stocks performed best.
They gained 21.66%.
Value stocks came next, gaining 16.50%.
The Nifty 500, which represents a broad group of Indian stocks, gained 2.38%.
All five factor styles beat the Nifty 500 during this period.
Momentum and Quality performed only slightly better than the index.
This shows that different investment styles can perform very differently in the same year.
High Beta delivered the strongest 12-month return at 21.66% as of 31 July 2026.
Value ranked second with a 16.50% return, while Low Volatility returned 6.38%.
Quality and Momentum returned 3.35% and 2.67%, respectively, during the period.
The Nifty 500 returned 2.38%, meaning all five factors outperformed the benchmark.
High Beta posted the largest excess return at 19.28 percentage points, followed by Value at 14.12 points.
- Who
- The five factor-investing styles—High Beta, Value, Low Volatility, Quality and Momentum—and the Nifty 500 benchmark.
- What
- High Beta and Value led one-year returns, while all five factors outperformed the Nifty 500.
- Where
- The comparison concerns the Indian equity market, using the Nifty 500 as the benchmark.
- When
- Over the 12 months ending 31 July 2026.
- Why
- The data was presented to show how factor strategies performed relative to the broader market.
Key facts
- Best-performing factor
- High Beta, with a 21.66% 12-month return
- Second-best factor
- Value, with a 16.50% 12-month return
- Lowest-performing factor
- Momentum, with a 2.67% 12-month return
- Nifty 500 return
- 2.38% over 12 months
- High Beta excess return
- +19.28 percentage points versus the Nifty 500
- Value excess return
- +14.12 percentage points versus the Nifty 500
- Data source
- PL Asset Management's PMS Monthly Newsletter; source cited as PL Capital
- Data date
- 31 July 2026
Sources
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