CHENNAI: With active interest coming from even smaller towns following the slump in stock markets, equity mutual funds (MFs) have added about 4.77 lakh folios or investor accounts in December. This takes the total folio addition in the last two months to nearly 11 lakh.
About 1.08 lakh new folios were added in the ELSS (equity-linked savings schemes) category or tax saver MFs, which usually see interest only towards the end of the financial year, alone in December, data with markets regulator SEBI showed.
MFs saw net inflow of Rs 10,923 crore in December, of which Rs 10,103 crore was in equity funds (including ELSS), data with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed. This is the ninth straight month of positive inflows into equity schemes.
“Steady inflows from SIPs and increasing investor awareness have contributed to the category’s growth,” observers said. The total mobilisation by equity MF schemes stood at nearly Rs 51,000 crore in the first nine months of 2016-17. “It is expected that the momentum will continue in the last quarter of FY17 (2016-17) as investors may opt for tax-saving options like ELSS,” observers said.
The MF industry collected Rs 3,973 crore through the systematic investment plan (SIP) route during December. The average ticket size has been around Rs 3,200 per SIP account. The equity MF segment has been seeing an addition of about 4 lakh new SIPs on an average during the last 12 months.
Equity MFs are seeing a surge in investor participation following the correction in the stock markets and demonetisation. Equity-oriented MFs (including equity-linked savings schemes or ELSS) added nearly 6 lakh folios or investor accounts in November, the highest monthly addition since the post-election market rally that began in 2014.
In all, 7.7 lakh folios were added by the MF industry during December with the total folio count touching 5.28 crore at the end of the month, a 1.5% improvement over the previous month. The benchmark Sensex and the broader Nifty slid by 0.5% and 0.7% respectively during December. The MF industry has seen a 10.8% increase in investor accounts so far in 2016-17.
Folio count grew across all debt categories. It doubled in the liquid category compared to March 2016 levels. However, de-growth was seen in gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) category. The assets under management (AUM) of MFs from B-15 cities (beyond top-15 cities) increased 32.4% against industry growth of 26% during the 12-month period that ended in November 2016.
M Allirajan writes for the business section of The Times of India...
Read MoreM Allirajan writes for the business section of The Times of India. He has been tracking mutual funds and markets for nearly four years. Having worked in a business newspaper and a business magazine tracking the emerging trends in business and developments in corporate India, he believes in giving straight, simple and reader friendly content. When not following markets and developments in the mutual funds space, he reads books and listens to music.
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