The mutual fund folios count went up by 7.40 lakh in April 2017, according to the latest SEBI data. At the same time, the AUM of the mutual funds industry rose to an all-time high of Rs19.26 lakh crore.
As per data of the last few months, there has been a consistent surge in the number of folios in equity funds as inflows have increased largely due to the positive returns from equity funds.
As on April 2017, the total MF folio count stood at 5.61 crore, with more than 3.2 crore coming from equity. Also, equity funds received inflows of Rs8,842 crore in April.
ELSS funds have also witnessed good traction at the start of the financial year. The category added close to 1 lakh folios during the month. AMFI data shows that ELSS received net inflows of close to Rs587 crore in April.
Balanced funds continued the positive momentum by adding 1.54 lakh folios. The category received net inflows of Rs7,136 crore in April.
Folio count in April 2017
|
Category |
Folio as on March 2017 |
Folios as on April 2017 |
Change |
|
Equity |
3,23,74,285 |
3,28,59,180 |
4,84,895 |
|
ELSS |
84,51,926 |
85,51,753 |
99,827 |
|
Balanced |
35,48,912 |
37,03,908 |
1,54,996 |
|
ETFs other |
5,51,017 |
5,26,949 |
-24,068 |
|
ETFs gold |
3,64,110 |
3,60,725 |
-3,385 |
|
Income funds |
91,24,562 |
91,41,731 |
17,169 |
|
Gilt |
86,182 |
85,354 |
-828 |
|
Liquid |
7,88,860 |
8,04,604 |
15,744 |
|
Fund of funds |
1,09,726 |
1,07,894 |
-1,832 |
|
Total |
5,53,99,580 |
5,61,42,098 |
7,42,518 |
Source: SEBI
Speaking about the continuous uptrend in mutual fund folios, Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, believes, “It is the tripartite efforts of the regulator, fund managers and distributors that have helped retail investors to participate in mutual fund investments. The MF foundation built by the regulator was further structured by the fund managers by virtue of their performance. The distributors filled in the space by reaching out to retail investors and adding colour to the structure.”
ETFs, which track the equity indices, witnessed a drop in its folio count this month. The category lost 24,068 folios in April. Equity ETFs however witnessed an inflow of Rs456 crore last month.
Nilesh attributed this decline to the underperformance of indices. “Active funds have been delivering good returns as compared to index-tracking ETFs,” he said.
Barring gilt, debt funds too have seen good traction as the total folio count in this category increased by over 32,000 in April 2017, largely due to addition in income fund folios. Income funds added over 17,000 folios while liquid funds added over 15,000 folios during the month.
The fund of funds category is seeing continuous erosion in folios. Folios in overseas fund of funds category dropped by 1,832.
