New Delhi, June 2 -- Even as the oil shock fuelled by the war in the Middle-East has strained the economy, equity mutual funds (MFs) that invest in shares of companies engaged in the energy business have emerged as one of the best performers. Equity MFs, whose portfolios comprise almost exclusively of stocks of companies in the energy sector, have gained 9.4% so far in 2026. They have gone up by nearly 10.1% on an average in the last one year, the second-best performance in the equity MF category.

The Nifty Energy Index has advanced by 14.3% so far in 2026 on an absolute basis compared to the 8.1% and 4.9% decline registered by the Nifty-50 and Nifty-200 indices. The index rose by 13.1% in the one-year timeframe compared to 3.9% drop rec...