Equity funds remain the preferred way for retail investors to invest in the markets
The latest SEBI data shows that equity funds including pure equity, ELSS, balanced and equity ETFs added close to 15.4 lakh folios in December. The total folio count of equity funds went up to 5.53 crore in December from 5.38 crore in November.
Experts attribute this addition of folios to optimism prevailing in the market and investor awareness initiatives.
In absolute terms, pure equity funds witnessed the highest increase in folios. Over 12 lakh folios were added in equity funds taking the total number of pure equity fund folios to 3.98 crore.
Balanced funds followed pure equity funds. Balanced funds added close to 2 lakh folios. Balanced fund folios increased from 51 lakh in November to 53 lakh in December.
Equity ETF was the only equity category to witness a fall in folios. Equity ETF folios decreased by nearly 1 lakh to 7.6 lakh folios in December.
Other than equity
Barring gilt funds, gold ETFs and fund of funds investing overseas, all other categories recorded a growth in folios.
Overall, the industry has added over 15.65 lakh folios in December. The total folio count across all categories increased from 6.49 crore in November to 6.65 crore in December.
Folio count as on December 2017
|
Nov 2017 |
Dec 2017 |
Difference |
Difference % |
Equity |
38578295 |
39851102 |
1272807 |
3.30 |
ELSS |
9274606 |
9447359 |
172753 |
1.86 |
Balanced |
5117641 |
5317154 |
199513 |
3.90 |
ETFs other |
864791 |
761994 |
-102797 |
-11.89 |
ETFs gold |
350202 |
345006 |
-5196 |
-1.48 |
Income funds |
9567158 |
9574643 |
7485 |
0.08 |
Gilt |
86944 |
83587 |
-3357 |
-3.86 |
Liquid |
985447 |
1009825 |
24378 |
2.47 |
Fund of funds |
96544 |
95774 |
-770 |
-0.80 |
Total |
64921628 |
66486502 |
1564874 |
2.41 |
Source: SEBI