As on December 2015, the average ticket size or the average asset size in equity funds is Rs.1.20 lakh per folio, shows the latest AMFI data.
As compared to equity funds, the average ticket size in liquid and debt funds is higher as such funds are dominated by institutional investors. For instance, the average ticket size in liquid funds is Rs. 66.35 lakh and the ticket size in debt funds is Rs. 7.55 lakh.
Institutional investors including FIIs had the largest ticket size at Rs.10.40 crore per folio. Retail investors have an average ticket size of Rs.63,176 per folio while HNIs held Rs. 20.40 lakh per folio.
Individual investors
Individual investors, including HNIs, hold a sizeable portion of equity assets which is reflected by the number of folios held by them. More than 99% of equity folios are held by individual investors. According to AMFI, HNIs are those who invest Rs. 5 lakh or more.
Apart from equity schemes, retail investors hold more than 90% of folios in other fund categories too. For instance, individual investors hold 98% folios in debt funds, 92% in liquid and money market schemes and 99% in ETFs and fund of funds. While retail investors hold a majority of folios across scheme categories, their contribution, in terms of AUM, is small in debt funds, liquid funds and ETFs.
Nevertheless, retail investors dominate the industry, in terms of number of folios held by them. Of the 4.58 crore investor accounts as on December 2015, 99% folios are held by retail investors while HNIs and institutional investors hold 17.21 lakh and 4.41 lakh folios respectively.
Of the total 4.58 crore folios, nearly 81% of the investor accounts (all categories of investors) are in equity schemes, 17% in debt schemes and the remaining in liquid funds, ETFs and fund of funds.
Folios on the rise
A positive trend is that count of investor folios is continuously rising since March 2014, largely on account of increase in retail folios in equity schemes. The total investor base of the industry has increased from 3.95 crore in March 2014 to 4.59 crore in December 2015. Thus, the industry’s investor base is close to reaching the 2010 peak of 4.80 crore.
Thanks to healthy participation by retail investors through SIPs, industry officials believe that the industry’s investor base will expand further from here.
