AMFI’s recently published figures show that individual investors held Rs. 18.34 lakh crore i.e. 54% of the industry assets as on June 2021. Individual-investor assets include investments by HNIs as well.
Individual investors largely invested in equity-oriented schemes (73%) followed by debt-oriented schemes (21%). Equity-oriented schemes include equity and aggressive hybrid funds.
Individual equity assets jumped by 49% to Rs. 13.37 lakh crore in June 21. Similarly, individual investments in debt-oriented schemes saw a rise of 23% from Rs. 3.07 lakh crore to Rs. 3.79 lakh crore. The biggest surge (121%) was in the ETFs/FOFs category where the assets grew from Rs. 15,726 crore to Rs. 34,787 crore over the last year.
On the other hand, individual investors reduced their holding in liquid/money market schemes by around 15%. These assets dipped from Rs. 97,874 crore to Rs. 83,277 crore over the last year.
Srikanth Matrubai of SriKavi Wealth, Bangalore attributes this to mark-to-market gains and growing popularity of mutual funds. He said that many investors have been investing in equity funds due to strong performance of mutual funds compared to other financial products.
Regular V/s Direct Plans
Individual investors primarily prefer regular plans i.e. distributors. Of the total individual assets of Rs. 18.34 lakh crore, 80% (Rs. 14.67 lakh crore) was facilitated by distributors.
A review of the geographic spread shows that 26% i.e. Rs.4.77 lakh crore has come from B30 locations. Of this, around 85% of the assets i.e. Rs. 4.03 lakh crore was brought in by distributors. This forms around 22% of the total individual assets. Let’s take a look at the below table to understand the spread of regular and direct plans across B30 and T30 locations.
Further, asset-wise composition shows that 84% of individual equity assets, 72% of individual debt assets and 63% of individual liquid/money market schemes have come through distributors. Talking about ETFs, FoFs, 54% of individual investors went through direct plans.
