The new financial year started on a good note for the mutual fund industry. Its assets under management reached an all-time high of Rs.19.26 lakh crore, shows the latest AMFI data. The AUM rose 9.7% from Rs.17.54 lakh crore in March.
The growth is due to record inflows in liquid, income and equity funds.
“The assets grew due to continuous inflows in equity funds. In addition, many institutional investors, who redeemed their investments in March to meet tax obligations, came back to mutual funds in April. Going forward, we believe that this uptrend will continue,” said Suresh Soni, CEO of DHFL Pramerica Mutual Fund.
Seconding Suresh’s thought, Rahul Parikh - CEO, Bajaj Capital says, “Indian investors have now eventually assimilated mutual funds and the credit goes to awareness programs and endeavors by regulators and AMCs & Distributors in mutual fund industry. Another reason why investors have preferred debt and balanced category of mutual funds is because of falling interest rates of secured investment schemes like PPF and Bank FD's. Last but not the least, SIP, STP and SWP ways of investing have also given the investors a choice as well as flexibility of investing periodically or in lumpsum as per their preference.”
Another senior official from a private fund house said that the growth is largely due to a market rally. BSE Sensex reached close to 30,000 mark in April.
AMFI data shows that equity funds received inflows of Rs.8,800 crore in April. If we include ELSS, balanced funds, and ETFs that track indices, the overall inflows in equity funds rose to Rs.17,000 crore in April. The rise in the inflows of equity funds is mostly due to investments by the retail investors through SIPs.
Similarly, balanced funds recorded second highest inflows in equity category in April. These funds received inflows of Rs.7,100 crore.
Inflows in ELSS and ETFs stood at Rs587 crore and Rs.456 crore in April, respectively.
Among debt funds, income and liquid funds received inflows of Rs.34,647 crore and Rs.99,403 crore, respectively, in April largely because of investments from corporates and institutions. Typically, these investors invest at the beginning of the financial year and redeem at the end of each quarter.
Overall, the mutual fund industry received net inflows of Rs.1.50 lakh crore in April.
Net inflow/(outflow) and AUM as on April 30, 2017
|
Category |
|
AUM in Rs Crore |
|
Equity |
8,842 |
5,04,971 |
|
ELSS |
587 |
63,799 |
|
Balanced |
7,136 |
93,530 |
|
ETFs other |
456 |
45,899 |
|
ETFs gold |
-66 |
5,377 |
|
Income |
34,647 |
7,80,797 |
|
Gilt |
-462 |
14,356 |
|
Liquid |
99,403 |
4,13,746 |
|
FOFs investing overseas |
-40 |
1,705 |
|
Total |
1,50,703 |
19,26,302 |
Source: AMFI
