The new financial year continued to see increase in folios. The mutual fund folios count went up by 8.39 lakh in April 2017, according to the latest SEBI data. At the same time, the AUM of the mutual funds industry rose to an all-time high of Rs.23.25 lakh crore.
The industry has witnessed consistent increase in the number of folios especially equity funds due to upbeat investor sentiment due to attractive returns.
As on April 2018, the total industry folio was at 7.21 crore, with more than 4.4 crore coming from equity. Also, equity funds (excluding arbitrage) received inflows of Rs.10,700 crore in April.
Balanced funds continued the positive momentum by adding 1.07 lakh folios in April despite a fall in the net inflows to Rs.3500 crore in April from Rs.6,754 crore in March.
Another equity category, tax savings funds also witnessed increase in folios. The category added close to 26,530 lakh folios during the month to reach a total folio count of 1.04 lakh.
Equity ETFs, a part of passive investment recorded a marginal decline in folios. The category lost 942 folios in April. Equity ETFs however witnessed an inflow of Rs.2,297 crore last month.
Debt funds barring income funds also saw good traction in growth in folios. The total count of income folios fell by nearly 40,000 to 95.4 lakh folios.
Another category of fund, the fund of funds saw fall in folios. Folios in overseas fund of funds category dropped by 146 to 93,713.
Total folios
Category |
March 2018 |
April 2018 |
Difference |
Difference % |
Equity |
43120298 |
43829515 |
709217 |
1.64 |
ELSS |
10414687 |
10441217 |
26530 |
0.25 |
Balanced |
5889085 |
5996371 |
107286 |
1.82 |
ETFs other |
751947 |
751005 |
-942 |
-0.13 |
ETFs gold |
329343 |
332753 |
3410 |
1.04 |
Income funds |
9577218 |
9537241 |
-39,977 |
-0.42 |
Gilt |
75553 |
86918 |
11365 |
15.04 |
Liquid |
1095226 |
1117152 |
21926 |
2.00 |
Fund of funds |
93859 |
93713 |
-146 |
-0.16 |
Total |
71347301 |
72185970 |
838669 |
1.18 |
Source: SEBI