Debt schemes add 3.83 lakh folios

Gold ETFs add more than one lakh folios as the rush of new gold funds continue

Mumbai: Investors have flocked to debt schemes as the shadows of downturn in equity markets continued to disturb the market. RBI’s persistent rate hikes has made short term debt schemes attractive. This is evident by the sharp increase in the folios of debt schemes, both open-ended and close-ended (barring interval schemes) which added 3.83 lakh folios. Debt schemes added maximum number of folios. The total number of debt folios as on September 2011 stand at 46.88 lakh folios, up nine percent from 43.05 lakh folios till March 2011, shows SEBI data.

Apart from debt schemes ETFs are also in the limelight, particularly gold ETFs. The slew of gold funds launched by the industry has increased their folios. Gold ETFs and other ETFs added 1.09 lakh and 22,590 folios respectively. There are 35 ETFs currently in the market including 11 gold ETFs and 19 equity ETFs. Recently HDFC, Axis and ICICI Prudential launched gold funds while IDBI is also planning to float a gold fund.

The recently launched SBI Gold Fund collected Rs. 450 crore during its NFO which closed on   September 05, 2011. The fund received approximately 1.50 lakh applications from investors.

The ELSS category lost maximum folios (3.25 lakh folios) followed by equity schemes losing 2.56 lakh investor accounts. Balanced and gilt funds also lost 4,792 folios and 1,311 folios respectively. Overseas fund of funds added 5,846 investor accounts.  

“ELSS garnered inflows when the markets were good. Now they are nearing the maturity period of three years. Equity markets are in a bad shape. A lot of money is flowing into FMPs,” said a marketing head of a leading fund house.

Overall the industry lost 61,906 investor accounts. The MF industry now has 4.71 crore folios as on September 2011 compared to 4.72 lakh folios till March 2011.

In an attempt to trace unique MF investors, SEBI recently passed a circular asking fund houses to de-duplicate their folios in six months.

Folios