Retail investors move to debt funds which see 7.35 lakh folio additions in FY11
Mumbai: Retail investors exited equity schemes in FY11 as the industry saw an exodus of more than 16.48 lakh folios in the retail investor category.
Retail investors have taken a shine towards debt schemes which were so far popular among institutional and HNIs. Retail folios increased 7.35 lakh in debt schemes in FY11, taking the total number of retail folios to 39.29 lakh from 31.94 lakh folios in FY2010. Overall, debt schemes added 8.38 lakh folios in FY11. The total number of debt folios now stands at 43 lakh as on March 2011 from 34.7 lakh a year earlier.
The folio loss from equity schemes continues to haunt the industry. The HNI category saw 20,771 new folios being added in FY11. Equity schemes lost 29,965 corporate folios.
“All those investors who invested in the last quarter of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 were in losses all along and only when the market touched 21,000 they recovered their losses. Most of the money which was going out of equities was finding a way towards FMPs. With the launch of recent gold funds, we would see more retail investors coming in gold funds,” says Hemant Rustagi, CEO Wiseinvest.
As on March 2011, the industry has 4.72 crore folios compared to 4.80 folios in March 2010.
Other than debt, gold ETFs too saw an increase in folios. The total number of gold ETF folios jumped 1.72 lakh from 1.47 lakh folios in 2010 to 3.20 lakh as on March 2011.
Surprisingly, retail investors moved away from overseas fund of funds, a category which has been performing well of late. These funds lost 64,030 folios from retail category.
