Mutual funds are on-boarding new investors at an unprecedented pace this financial year, thanks to a lack of inflation-beating investment options and a record surge in the stock market.
In the first half of FY 2022, over 36 lakh people invested in mutual funds for the first time. The number is twice the total addition of unique investors (18 lakh) in the whole of FY 2021. With this addition, the total number of unique investors rose to 2.62 lakh by the end of September from 2.23 lakh at the end of last financial year (FY 2021).
*in crore
The number of unique investors is the total PAN cards registered with mutual funds.
Industry insiders believe more and more investors are realising the importance of mutual funds. According to them, advertisements run by the industry and the promotion through word of mouth are bringing new investors to the MF fold.
"There are roughly 2.6 crore unique investors now. It was 2.2 crore at the start of this financial year. It’s basically the reflection of expansion of market. Mutual fund is a unique product that has solutions for every customer need. People are slowly realising this fact. 'Mutual fund sahi hai' and other such campaigns have also played key roles in bringing new customers," said A Balasubramanian, MD & CEO of ABSL MF.
"A lot of people have become aware of mutual funds. The industry has created a large number of happy investors who are referring mutual funds to their family and friends. The ongoing market rally is also driving the surge in new investors," said Vinod Jain, founder of Jain Investments.
The monthly addition in new investors, which used to be in the range of 50,000 to 2 lakh in FY 2020 and most part of FY 2021, jumped to 5 lakh for the first time in February 2021. The figure declined to 3-4 lakh during the April-June period. It witnessed a sharp rise in July to 11 lakh and has been in the range of 8-9 lakh since then.
*in lakh
