Assets of MF industry top Rs 65 lakh crore for first time, equity funds see Rs 38,239 crore inflows in August

Open-ended equity mutual fund inflows rose 3.03 percent to Rs 38,239.16 crore during August on heavy demand for small-cap and mid-cap funds, according to the data released by the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), the industry trade body for mutual funds on September 10.

Notably, net assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry rose to hit the Rs 65 lakh crore level for the first time in August, data showed. The net AUM at the end of month stood at Rs 66.70 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, inflows into open-ended equity funds have remained in the positive zone for the 42nd month in a row.
Overall, open-ended mutual funds saw net inflows of Rs 1,08,240.95 crore.

Equity funds

The rise in equity inflows during August came amid tepid equity markets. During the month, the NSE benchmark Nifty 50 rose 1.14 percent, while the BSE headline index Sensex inched up 0.76 percent.

Despite this, inflows into small-cap funds jumped 52 percent to Rs 3,209.33 crore. Further, net investments into mid-cap funds zoomed 86 percent to Rs 3,054.68 crore.

Large-cap category saw net inflows of Rs 2,636.86 crore during August, a jump of 293 percent over the previous month.

On the other hand, inflows into multi-cap funds, which invests across large-cap, small-cap and mid-cap stocks, slumped 65 percent to Rs 2,475.06 crore.

Manish Mehta, National Head - Sales, Marketing & Digital Business, Kotak Mahindra AMC on AMFI numbers, said, “Net flows continue to remain encouraging with SIP and NFO inflows. Sectoral or thematic category of schemes witnessed strong inflows due to NFO. NFO’s seem to be the preferred route for investors to take a lump sum allocation to mutual funds since schemes have the flexibility to invest over a stipulated time period.”

Inflows into thematic/sectoral funds remained robust at Rs 18,117.18 crore during August. The inflows into thematic/sectoral funds were fuelled by new fund offers (NFOs) as five new funds in the category collected Rs 10,202 crore during the month.

In the fixed-income category, debt mutual funds saw net inflows of Rs 45,169.36 crore during August. During July, debt funds saw net inflows of Rs 1,19,588 crore.

Credit - Money Control