LIC MF Value Fund: One of the top performing value funds

Current market context

Market has turned volatile after renewed US Iran conflict has severely impacted oil and gas flows from the Middle East. Brent crude oil futures price have touched $100 per barrel. Nifty 50 has fallen by 700 points from its July 2026 high and most industry sectors are in red. This prolonged period of volatility over the past 4 - 5 months may have resulted in correction of some of the stock prices of even fundamentally stable companies. When such companies start trading at a price lower than their intrinsic value, they are called Value Stocks. Value stocks tend to provide stability in periods of uncertainty by providing margin of safety. Value stocks also tend to outperform in periods of economic recovery after a downturn (e.g., economic recovery after COVID, period 1^st January 2021 to 31^st December 2025, source: NSE). In the current economic and market scenario, mutual funds which focus on investing in value stocks viz. value funds may be suitable investment options for long term investors. In this article, we will review LIC MF Value Fund, one of the top performing value funds.

What is Value Investing?

Fund managers who follow the value investing style try to identify stocks which are trading at significant discounts to their intrinsic value. The intrinsic value of a stock is based on fundamental analysis, based on several factors like the company's competitive strengths, market share, industry growth potential, company's revenue growth prospects, margins, leverage etc. During usual course, a stock may trade at a price higher or lower than the intrinsic value. Stocks which are trading at significant discounts to intrinsic value provide margin of safety because the further downside risk is somewhat limited.

Why invest in value funds?

• Value investing can bring more consistency in your portfolio performance: Historical data shows that value strategy has outperformed the broad market across different market cycles. The chart below shows the calendar year returns on Nifty 500 Value 50 TRI (50 stocks chosen from the Nifty 500 universe based on value scores) versus the broad market, Nifty 500 TRI. You can see that the value index outperformed the broad market index, 7 times in the last 10 years. Since COVID-19, value index has continuously outperformed the broad market index
  
  

  

  Source: National Stock Exchange, Advisorkhoj, as on 30^th June 2026. Returns shown are absolute returns



• Value investing outperformed the broad market over long investment tenures: The chart below shows the 3-year rolling returns of the value index (Nifty 500 Value 50 TRI) versus the broad market index (Nifty 500 TRI). You can see that the value index outperformed the broad market over 3 year investment tenures over most periods.
  
  

  

  Source: National Stock Exchange, Advisorkhoj, as on 23^rd July 2026.

About LIC MF Value Fund

LIC MF Value Fund was launched in August 2018. Unlike traditional value investing approaches that may simply hold undervalued stocks until valuations normalize, LIC MF Value Fund follows an active value investing strategy. The fund seeks to identify fundamentally strong businesses that are mispriced due to cyclical downturns, sectoral pessimism, temporary balance sheet stress or short term earnings disruptions.

The fund manager continuously evaluates value opportunities across short, medium and long term horizons and actively rotates capital towards opportunities where the risk reward equation is most compelling. This approach ensures that value investing remains dynamic and opportunity driven rather than a passive buy and wait strategy.

Outperformed the benchmark index since inception

Source: Advisorkhoj Research, as on 23^rd July 2026

Outperformed the benchmark over different periods

Source: Advisorkhoj Research, as on 23^rd July 2026

Outperformed category average over last 1, 3 and 5 years

Source: Advisorkhoj Research, as on 23^rd July 2026

Wealth creation by SIP

The chart below shows the growth of Rs 10,000 monthly SIP in LIC MF Value Fund since the inception of the scheme. With a cumulative investment of Rs 9.5 lakhs, you could have accumulated a corpus of Rs 17.7 lakhs (as on 23^rd July 2026), beating the benchmark Nifty 500 TRI.

Source: Advisorkhoj Research, as on 23^rd July 2026

Investment Strategy

• LIC MF Value Fund predominantly invests in well-diversified portfolio of companies after taking into consideration several factors such as Earning Potential, Asset Value, Cash Flow, Dividend Yield, Company's competitive advantage etc.


• The fund managers study various parameters like the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, price-to-earning (P/E) ratio, dividend yields (D/Y) of companies within the researched fund house universe in order to arrive at potential investment strategies


• The fund managers also look into other quantitative parameters like Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) to identify stocks which may be available at more favourable valuations when compared with peer group and stocks in applicable benchmark.


• LIC MF Value Fund follows a high conviction investment approach. Instead of spreading investments across a large number of stocks, the fund seeks to allocate more capital to ideas where valuation discounts are substantial and supported by a strong margin of safety. The portfolio is designed with a focus on conviction rather than excessive diversification. This approach enables successful investment ideas to have a meaningful impact on portfolio performance.

Current Portfolio Positioning

Source: LIC MF, Advisorkhoj Research as on 30^th June 2026

Why invest in LIC MF Value Fund?

• The fund combines value investing with catalyst-based stock selection, active portfolio rotation, special situation investing and high-conviction portfolio construction. This differentiated approach seeks to unlock value within defined time horizons while mitigating the risk of value traps.


• Focus on Fundamentals - Focuses on fundamentally strong companies which are trading at a price lower than their intrinsic value.


• Long Term wealth creation - Scheme helps investors capture the long-term growth potential of undervalued companies.


• Ideal for Value Conscious Long-Term Investors - as the Portfolio comprises of well researched value picks.


• Allows style diversification - Scheme invests across sectors and market capitalisation allowing market cap and sector diversification.

Who should invest in LIC MF Value Fund?

• Investors looking for capital appreciation over long investment horizon


• Investors looking for value-based investing approach for meeting their long-term financial goals


• Investors willing to invest in undervalued business


• Investor looking for diversified investment in fundamentally strong companies across market cap and sectors


• Investors with a very high-risk appetite


• Investors with an investment tenure of over 5 years

Investors should consult their financial advisors or mutual fund distributors if LIC MF Value Fund is suitable for their investment needs.