Folio growth picks up in January after a lackluster December

Industry added 6.62 lakh folios in January, an increase of 92,284 compared to the month prior, shows the latest SEBI data.

Demand for ELSS funds increases during the tax season, typically the last quarter (Jan-Mar) of the financial year. The category added 1.74 lakh folios during the month, equaling 26% of the industry’s new folio creation in January. A similar uptick was observed in net inflows in ELSS funds too.

Overall, all equity funds added 5.72 lakh folios in January. Balanced funds too added nearly 18,000 folios despite the category recording net outflows of Rs. 952 crore during the month of January. Equity funds include pure equity, balanced and ELSS funds.

Liquid funds continued to see a consistent increase in their folios. In the last four months the category has added 2.08 lakh folios and has been amongst the fastest growing category in terms of percentage folio growth. In January, liquid fund folios grew by 3.06%.

Following liquid funds in the second place were gilt funds which saw a 2.8% increase in folios last month. Expectation of stance change by RBI on account of low inflation led to the increase in folios in the category during the last two months.

A likely recovery in debt category was also reflected in income fund numbers which reported an increase of 37,917 folios and inflows of over Rs. 2,000 crore during the month.

All categories of funds saw an increase in their folios except gold ETF category which saw its folios contract by 8467 folios during the month.

Overall, industry has nearly 8.1 crore folios as of end of January.

Industry folio data for month of January 2019

Source: SEBI