PMS assets cross Rs.4.50 lakh crore

PMS investments are gaining traction amongst HNI investors in the last few years. The total assets managed under PMS have touched Rs. 4.54 lakh crore growing 10% in the year ending August 2018. If we consider EPFO investments then the assets under PMS stood at Rs. 15 lakh crore in August.

Vikas V. Gupta, CEO and Chief Investment Strategist OmniScience Capital Advisors believes that the popularity of PMS stems from two main reasons. “Firstly, other popular physical and financial assets such as real estate, gold and fixed deposits are not delivering attractive returns. This has increased investor interest in equity markets. Secondly, PMS generate alpha over the market by taking concentrated bets in non-index stocks. This is unlike mutual funds whose top holdings closely mirror the index. Thus investors looking for excess returns are increasingly considering PMS,” he added.      

Non-discretionary PMS grew at the fastest pace of 21% to reach Rs. 97,190 crore last year. In non-discretionary PMS, a fund manager cannot execute transactions without prior permission from investors. Simply put, investors have a say in stock selection. Most banks and national distributors prefer non-discretionary PMS as it provides better transparency and flexibility to investors.

Advisory services assets marginally declined in value by 1.41% in the last one year. Overall, net outflow in advisory assets was Rs. 2,727 crore. Advisory services under PMS include onshore and offshore advisory services where portfolio managers provide investment advisory services to their clients. Despite the fall in assets, the total number of clients under advisory services grew by 51% from 1,614 in August 2017 to 2,438 in August 2018.

Meanwhile, discretionary assets touched Rs. 12.08 lakh crore growing by 10.08%. A large chunk of discretionary assets comes from EPFO and PFs. Of the Rs. 12.08 lakh crore AUM under discretionary PMS, EPFO and PFs have contributed nearly Rs. 10.42 lakh crore. Growth in discretionary assets excluding EPFO was 21% last year.

Source:SEBI