Retail investors are putting in more money in mutual funds. The average size of each retail folio has increased 4.24%, from Rs.75,801 to Rs.79,019 in FY 2017-18, shows the latest AMFI data. (Size is computed as assets managed for a given investor category or the number of accounts for that category.)
Experts attribute the growth in the average size to the good performance of the equity markets and increased investor appetite for equity funds.
Average folio size of equity funds
AMFI data shows that the average size of each equity folio increased by 9%, to reach Rs1.55 lakh as on March 2018. In March 2017, the average size of equity folio was Rs1.42 lakh. In addition, the number of folios under equity, ELSS and balanced schemes increased to 5.94 crore from 4.44 crore, a healthy 34% in FY 2017-18.
Overall the mutual fund industry has 7.13 crore folios in March 2018. Of these, individual investors – both retail investors and HNIs – hold 99%. While retail investors constitute 94% of folios in the mutual funds industry with over 6.7 crore folios, HNIs hold close to 39.30 lakh folios with average folio size of Rs.16.35 lakh. AMFI places an individual with an investment of Rs.5 lakh or more in HNI category and below Rs.5 lakh in retail.
The industry has witnessed a growth of 29% in its folio count. The total folio count in mutual funds has increased from 5.5 crore in March 2017 to 7.1 crore in March 2018.
Average folio size of debt funds
Similarly, debt funds account for 13.5% of folio count. Individual investors hold 98.7% per cent of debt fund folios. The average size of debt funds increased from Rs.8.25 lakh to Rs.8.28 lakh in FY 2017-18.
In the debt fund category, liquid funds account for only 1.5% of overall folio count of the industry.
However, the average size of this category is the highest compared to other categories with Rs.30 lakh per folio due to the presence of institutional investors.
Average folio size of other investor categories
Overall, institutional investors, including FIIs, have the largest size in mutual fund folio count with over Rs.9.28 crore per folio.
Corporates follow institutional investors with an average size of Rs.2.2 crore per folio.
