An apparatus and a method of providing a Near Field Communication (NFC) function in a portable terminal are provided. The method includes recognizing a tag and reading an NFC message from the tag, storing second data in the memory when the NFC message includes first data of a predetermined record type, the second data corresponding to other data except for the first data among all data included in the NFC message, determining whether a particular application corresponding to the first data has been installed, and when the particular application has been installed, executing the particular application and providing the second data to the particular application so as to enable the particular application to execute a particular function by using the second data.