What a monthly SIP would actually have returned

Every SIP calculator on the Indian internet — from brokers, fund houses and comparison sites — asks you to enter an expected rate of return, usually 12%, and then compounds forward from it. The answer it gives you is the number you typed in, rearranged. This does the opposite: it takes a real stock, buys it at the end of every month at the price it actually traded at, and reports what that would have produced.

CAGR describes one sum invested once and left alone. A SIP adds money every month, so each instalment is exposed for a different length of time — in a ten-year SIP the first instalment compounds for ten years and the last for one month. XIRR is the single annual rate that makes all of those instalments and the final value balance, and it is the only defensible way to annualise a SIP.

Yes. Every instalment is priced at the month-end adjusted close, which already folds in dividends and stock splits, so dividends are treated as reinvested. What is not included: demergers and spin-offs, which our data source does not adjust for, and brokerage and taxes, which are not modelled.

Over most rising periods, no — money invested earlier has longer to compound, so a lump sum usually finishes ahead. A SIP wins when the price falls during the period, because later instalments buy more units for the same money. Every stock page here shows both outcomes side by side rather than only the flattering one. In practice the comparison is rarely a real choice: a SIP invests what you earn each month, while a lump sum requires having the whole amount already.

Every company in the Nifty 500 that we track, using up to 20 years of daily price history. A stock needs at least a year of listed history before a SIP backtest means anything, so very recent listings show fewer periods until the record grows.

No. ReturnScreener is an educational research platform and is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser. Everything here is a record of what historical prices did. A stock that compounded well for twenty years carries no promise about the next one, and concentrating monthly savings into a single company is a materially different risk from a diversified fund.