The mutual fund industry is scaling new heights in popularity among retail investors.
According to the latest SEBI data, the mutual fund industry added 12 lakh folios in July, taking the total folio count to close to 6 crore. A rough calculation indicates that the industry has added an impressive 57,000 folios each day in the month of July.
Equity funds have added over 7 lakh folios last month. Due to the stock market rally, these schemes have attracted more investors increasing the folio count from 3.42 crore in June to 3.49 crore in July. At the same time, equity funds saw an inflow of Rs. 12,037 crore, shows the latest AMFI data. Also, AUM of equity funds stood at Rs.5.59 crore in July.
Surprisingly, ELSS, which usually receive inflows during the tax-saving season i.e. January to March, have been witnessing healthy additions in folio every month. Experts believe that the positive change in investor behaviour is due to the increasing awareness about SIPs. This category witnessed a healthy addition of nearly 1 lakh folios in July 2017.
Balanced funds continued the positive momentum by adding 2.09 lakh folios. The category received net inflows of Rs.7,864 crore in July. Many HNIs have started putting money in balanced funds as the market is at a peak.
Folio count in July 2017
|
Category |
Folios as on June 2017 |
Folios as on July 2017 |
Change |
|
Equity |
3,42,04,962 |
3,49,43,270 |
7,38,308 |
|
ELSS |
87,28,703 |
88,26,160 |
97,457 |
|
Balanced |
40,62,169 |
42,71,756 |
2,09,587 |
|
ETFs other |
5,26,107 |
5,34,448 |
8,341 |
|
ETFs gold |
3,61,116 |
3,58,785 |
-2,331 |
|
Income funds |
93,10,315 |
94,14,251 |
1,03,936 |
|
Gilt |
87,491 |
90,842 |
3,351 |
|
Liquid |
8,45,527 |
8,79,028 |
33,501 |
|
Fund of funds |
1,03,937 |
1,02,267 |
-1,670 |
|
Total |
5,82,30,327 |
5,94,20,807 |
11,90,480 |
Source: SEBI
After witnessing continuous decline in its folio count, ETFs that track indices have added over 8,000 folios and mopped up close to Rs.1,753 crore in July. Recently, the government has announced the launch of a new ETF called Bharat 22 ETF. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund will manage this ETF.
Debt funds too have seen good traction. The total folio count in this category increased by over 1.41 lakh in July 2017, largely due to addition in income fund folios. Income funds has added over 1.03 lakh folios while liquid funds and gilt funds have added over 33,000 folios and 3,300 folios respectively during the month.
Baring Gold ETFs and fund of funds, all other categories saw an addition in its folio. While gold ETFs saw a decline of 2,331 folios, folios in fund of funds category dropped by 1,670 in July.
