Mutual funds back in demand, assets rise 6% in June quarter

The assets of the country’s mutual fund industry have grown by over 6%, or R42,546 crore, during the April-June quarter on a sequential basis with inflows coming into both equity as well as debt funds.

As per data provided by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), average assets under management (AAUMs) of 41 funds for the April-June quarter stood at R7,43,083 crore against R7,00,537 crore for the January-March quarter. In the previous quarter, Indian MF assets had also seen a rise by over 3%.

A Balasubramanian, CEO of Birla Sun Life MF, says, “We have seen incremental flows coming into the equity schemes through systematic investment plans (SIP). Also relatively lower redemption was witnessed in June on the debt side as compared to the previous quarter.”

Among the top 10 fund houses, IDFC MF (32.49%) and SBI MF (14.88%) saw huge increase in their assets for the April-June quarter. According to market participants, in the last three months, several fund houses had launched short-term fixed maturity plans (FMPs) which had also seen huge response from the retail investors. With higher interest rates existing in the economy, investors are preferring FMPs to park their short-term money. “With equity markets remaining volatile in the last quarter, lot of hot money have also flown into the equity funds” said a chief marketing officer of a leading fund house on condition of anonymity.

However, 11 of 41 fund houses registered a dip in their AAUM for the quarter ended June. It included names such as Reliance MF, DSP BlackRock MF and Franklin Templeton MF. Country’s top fund house, Reliance MF’s assets stood at over R1,01,259 crore during the quarter witnessing a marginal fall of R317 crore or 0.31% while that of HDFC MF rose R5,750 crore to R92,032 crore for the quarter. Interestingly, smaller fund houses like Taurus MF, Baroda Pioneer MF, IDBI MF and Deutsche MF saw huge increase in their assets.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/mutual-funds-back-in-demand-assets-rise-6-in-june-quarter/812644/0