Despite the covid-19 pandemic, the consequent lockdown and a market meltdown, the MF industry has managed to add 5.30 lakh unique investors in the past 6 months i.e. between April and September.
AMFI data shows that the number of unique investors rose by 5.30 lakh to 2.13 crore at the end of September from 2.08 crore at the end of March. In the preceding 6 months i.e. between October 2019 and March 2020, the industry had added 8.20 lakh investors.
|
Unique investors as on |
Total Unique Investors |
|
Sep 30, 2019 |
1,99,77,899 |
|
Mar 31, 2020 |
2,07,99,186 |
|
Sep 30, 2020 |
2,13,31,098 |
Experts feel that even as the addition of new investors in Apr-Sep is lower than the preceding 6 months i.e. Oct-Mar, it is encouraging for the MF industry.
Sunil Subramaniam Sunil Subramaniam, MD & CEO of Sundaram MF said, “I would say the numbers are fantastic. The Oct-Mar period last fiscal was a time when equity markets were touching fresh new highs every now and then. And there was no pandemic and lockdown. Therefore, I feel the industry can take heart from these numbers and the number of unique investors in the upcoming six months i.e. Oct 2020 to Mar 2021 can double to more than 10 lakh investors.”
Experts feel that with the whole MF ecosystem getting more comfortable with digital onboarding, the turnaround time will improve significantly in coming months. Besides, since the unique investors joining the industry are investing in safer products, the business is becoming more sustainable than earlier and it will consequently attract more investors.
Swarup Mohanty, CEO at Mirae Asset MF said, “Retail investors who are parking their money in bank FDs are now opting for safer products such as banking & PSU funds, corporate bond funds as against credit risk funds. This is a good sign for the industry. Moreover, given India’s demography, I expect more young people to opt for financial products like mutual funds. So, we can expect the numbers to improve significantly in the coming months.”
