Retail investors’ appetite for equity funds seems to have revived if the latest folio data is anything to go by. The latest AMFI data shows that retail equity folios were up by 8.16 lakh during the June quarter. The total number of retail equity folios went up from 3.08 crore in March to 3.16 crore in June 2015.
The rise in retail folios was evident by the inflows in equity funds. During the June quarter the industry launched nine new equity funds which collected Rs. 1,584 crore. The industry received net inflows Rs. 32,255 crore in equity funds in June quarter. (The data also reflects investments from other categories of investors such as banks, FIIs, corporates and HNIs but a large portion of inflows in equity funds come from retail investors.)
Balanced funds too saw an addition of 87,379 retail folios. The total number of balanced fund folios went up from 19.04 lakh in March 2015 to 19.91 lakh folios in June 2015.
Barring Gold ETFs, gilt funds and overseas fund of funds, all other categories saw a growth in retail folios.
“Investors’ confidence has gone up and the rise in folios is due to new SIP registrations. Majority of the folios is being generated in existing equity funds which come with a track record,” said D P Singh, Executive Director & Chief Marketing Officer (Domestic Business), SBI Mutual Fund.
Overall, the industry’s total retail folio count crossed 4 crore mark in June. The total retail folio count (across all categories) went up from 3.99 crore to 4.08 crore during June quarter, an increase of 9.43 lakh folios largely due to a healthy growth in retail equity folios.
If you add other categories of investors like corporates, HNIs, banks and FIIs, the total folio count of the industry increased by 10.37 lakh from 4.17 crore in March 2015 to 4.27 crore accounts in June 2015.
