Equity funds add over 2 lakh folios

The total folio count across all categories increased to 4.92 crore in July 2016.

Thanks to fresh inflows in existing funds on the back of a rally in equity markets, equity funds continued to add new folios in July. Equity funds have received net inflows of close to Rs. 2,221 crore in July.

As a result, equity funds added 2.06 lakh folios in July, shows SEBI data. ELSS funds too received net inflows of Rs. 285 crore which helped the category add 31,200 folios.

Balanced funds

Balanced funds continue to gain popularity among investors as the category saw an addition of close to 61,600 folios in July and received net inflows of Rs. 2,079 crore in July. After the changes in tax structure of debt funds, many investors have turned to balanced funds. As a result, the total folios in balanced funds increased from 26.22 lakh in June to 26.84 lakh in July.

Debt funds

Debt funds have also seen good traction as the total folio count in this category increased by 56,200 lakh in July, largely due to addition in income funds. Income funds added over 1.33 lakh folios in July. Similarly, gilt funds too added 1900 folios in July. However, liquid funds lost 78,269 folios in July. Overall, the total folio count in debt funds increased from 88.47 lakh in June to 89.04 in July.

ETFs

ETFs, which track the equity indices, have witnessed a marginal decline of 1300 folios.

Meanwhile, gold ETFs lost close to 9,000 folios in July. Experts attribute this drop in folios to profit booking on account of the recent increase in gold prices. and increasing popularity of gold sovereign bond funds.

Overseas fund of Funds

This category is seeing continuous erosion in folios. However, the pace of folio closures slowed down in July. The category lost 6,000 folios in May. In July, this category lost 1000 folios.

Overall, reflecting the positive sentiment among investors, the industry added 3.13 lakh folios in July. Thus, the total folio count across all categories increased to 4.92 crore folio in July from 4.89 crore in June 2016.