The financial year 2016-17 has started on a good note for the mutual fund industry.
Thanks to fresh inflows in existing funds, equity funds continued to add new folios in April. Despite a percentage drop in Sensex in April, equity funds added 1.58 lakh folios, shows the latest SEBI data.
The addition in folios was due to healthy inflows in existing schemes as equity funds saw net inflows of Rs. 4,875 crore in April. The industry launched one arbitrage fund in April which collected Rs. 66 crore. The AUM of equity funds has reached close to Rs. 4 lakh crore in April.
The total folio count of equity funds increased to 3.62 crore in April from 3.60 lakh in March.
Balanced funds
Balanced funds continued to gain popularity among investors as the category saw an addition of 31,224 folios in April and received net inflows of Rs. 366 crore. After the changes in tax structure of debt funds, many investors have rushed to balanced funds.
The total folios in balanced funds increased from 24.90 lakh in March 2016 to 25.21 lakh in April 2016.
Folio as on April 2016
|
Category |
Folios as on March 2016 |
Folios as on April 2016 |
Change |
|
Equity |
28746591 |
28859070 |
112479 |
|
ELSS |
7278471 |
7324180 |
45709 |
|
Equity total |
36025062 |
36183250 |
158188 |
|
Balanced |
2490458 |
2521682 |
31224 |
|
ETFs |
271700 |
271910 |
210 |
|
Gold ETF |
425914 |
421162 |
-4752 |
|
Income funds |
7891468 |
7989542 |
98074 |
|
Gilt |
65164 |
64926 |
-238 |
|
Liquid |
367194 |
494462 |
127268 |
|
Debt total |
8323874 |
8548978 |
225104 |
|
Overseas fund of funds |
126016 |
124832 |
-1184 |
|
Total |
47663024 |
48071814 |
408790 |
Source: SEBI
Debt funds
Debt funds have also seen good traction as the total folio count in this category increased by over 2.25 lakh in April, largely due to addition in liquid funds and income funds.
Liquid funds have added over 1.27 lakh folios. Similarly, income funds too have added over 98,000 folios in April.
However, gilt funds lost 238 folios even as RBI slashed repo rate by 25 bps in April. Experts said that yields from government bonds have hardened in the last two quarters due to which the category has not performed well as expected.
The total folio count in debt funds increased from 83.24 lakh in March 2016 to 85.55 lakh in April 2016.
ETFs
ETFs, which track the equity indices, are getting increasingly popular among investors. The folio count in this category has risen to 2.72 lakh in April 2016.
However, Gold ETF folios dipped by 4,752. Experts attribute this to lackluster performance of Gold ETFs in the past and launch of Schemes Sovereign Gold Bonds. However, the yellow metal has bounced back in the recent past. Value Research data shows that gold fund category has delivered 7% and 10% return absolute return over three months and one year period respectively.
Overseas fund of Funds
This category is seeing continuous erosion in folios. Folios in overseas fund of funds category dropped by 1,200 in April. Value Research data shows that the category has delivered a negative 9% return over a one year period.
Overall, reflecting the positive sentiment among investors, the industry added close to 4 lakh folios in April. The total folio count across all categories increased to 4.80 crore in April 2016 from 4.76 crore in March 2016.
