Equity funds add over 3 lakh folios in August

Thanks to fresh inflows in existing funds on the back of a rally in equity markets, equity funds continued to add new folios in August. Equity funds, including arbitrage funds, have received net inflows of close to Rs. 6,200 crore in August. 

As a result, equity funds added over 3.14 lakh folios in August, shows SEBI data. ELSS funds too received net inflows of Rs. 402 crore which helped the category add 47,500 folios.

Swarup Mohanty, CEO, Mirae Asset MF attributed this growth to sustained inflows in existing funds from T15 cities. “The money is coming in existing funds which is a good sign for the industry. Also, this money is coming largely from T15 cities. We have observed that T15 money is sticky as compared to B15 assets which are prone to churning.”

Balanced funds

Balanced funds continue to gain popularity among investors as the category saw an addition of close to 86,250 folios and received net inflows of Rs. 2,732 crore in August. 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 26.84 lakh in July to 27.70 lakh in August.

Debt funds

Debt funds have also seen good traction as the total folio count in this category increased by 1.66 lakh in August, largely due to addition in income funds. Income funds added over 1.36 lakh folios in August. Liquid funds too added close to 27,000 folios in August. Overall, the total folio count in debt funds increased from 89.04 lakh in July to 90.69 lakh in August. Similarly, gilt funds too added 3300 folios in August.

ETFs

ETFs, which track the equity indices, have witnessed a marginal decline of 2,300 folios.

Meanwhile, gold ETFs lost close to 5700 folios in August. 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. The category lost 1400 folios in August.

Overall, reflecting the positive sentiment among investors, the industry added 5.60 lakh folios in August. Thus, the total folio count across all categories increased to 4.98 crore folio in August from 4.92 crore in July 2016.

Folio count as on August 2016

Source: SEBI