The Indian equity markets have fallen by 27% since January 14 this year, when it had touched a new high. However, several mutual fund (MF) houses have continued to remain invested, while few of them increased their cash levels before the bloodbath in the markets.
The latest data from Emkay MF tracker shows that out of total equity assets under management (AUM) of Rs 7.88 lakh crore, fund houses had cash holding of Rs 39,468.6 crore, which is around 5% of the equity assets as on February. In the past few months, the cash levels of mutual funds were in the range of 4.5-5% of the equity AUM. But few fund houses like Axis MF, PPFAS MF and LIC MF, among others, had cash levels of more than 10% of its equity AUM in February.
