What is Active Share?
You’re paying an active-management fee, but is the manager actually deviating from the index? Active Share answers this directly by comparing every holding’s weight in the fund against its weight in the benchmark.
Active Share = 100 − Σ min(wfund,i, wbench,i)
0% = holds the index exactly. 100% = zero overlap with the index.
Real comparison across 6 funds
CHART
Active Share - 6 real funds
Share of the portfolio that differs from the fund's own resolved benchmark.
Funds compared: Canara Robeco Flexi Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth · Canara Robeco Large and Mid Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth · Bandhan Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth · Franklin India Small Cap Fund - Direct - Growth · Franklin India Large Cap Fund - Direct - Growth · Canara Robeco Infrastructure Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
Reading the spread
Across these 6 funds, active share runs from 36.5% (Bandhan Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth) to 78.7% (Franklin India Small Cap Fund - Direct - Growth), a gap of 42.1%. The middle value is 56.4%, with 3 of 6 above it. The highest reading is 2.2 times the lowest, so the choice of fund changes this number a lot. Neither end is better or worse in itself; the number describes how a fund behaves, and what matters is whether that matches what you want.
How to use it in practice
Active share measures how different a fund’s holdings are from its benchmark, from 0% (an index copy) to 100% (nothing in common). Use it to check what you are paying for: a fund with a low active share charges active fees while mostly holding the index. High active share is a precondition for outperformance, not a promise of it.
Common mistakes
A high active share only shows the fund is different, not that it is better; the differences can hurt as easily as help. It also depends on which benchmark is used, so a fund can look very active against one index and not against another. Read it with tracking error and the expense ratio.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good active share?
Above about 60% is commonly seen as a truly active portfolio and below 40% as closer to an index fund, but these are conventions, and what matters is whether the extra difference has added return after costs.
How is active share calculated?
It is half the sum of the absolute differences between a fund’s weights and its benchmark’s weights, across all stocks.
Can an index fund have active share?
An index fund tracks its index and so should be near zero. A reading well above zero for an index fund would be unusual.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU A fund with low Active Share (say, under 40-50%) is a “closet indexer” - you’re paying active fees for what’s mostly index exposure. Check this before assuming an “actively managed” fund is actually behaving differently from a cheap index fund.
METHODOLOGY Computed per-holding against the fund’s own resolved benchmark’s constituent weights, using the latest disclosed portfolio on both sides. Data: July-2026 portfolio disclosure via Punji. Not investment advice.