Equity schemes continued to witness inflows for the second consecutive month in September, with no major redemptions witnessed despite poor equity market sentiments. However on an overall basis, mutual fund industry saw outflows of over R54,173 crore, with most redemptions coming through liquid and income schemes.
According to latest data provided by Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), equity schemes saw inflows of R1,401 crore in September as against an inflow of over R2,000 crore witnessed in the previous month. The average assets under management (AAUM) for the industry stood at over R6.41 lakh crore or 7.8% lower as compared to the month of August. In September, the benchmark equity indices were down by over 2%.
Market participants say that, over R1,600-1,800 crore worth of money are coming into equity schemes every month through systematic investment plans (SIPs). Waqar Naqvi, CEO at Taurus MF says, ?Inflows in equity schemes might be largely due to no major redemption seen in September as we had seen earlier. Also net sales are going up, which is very positive for the industry.?
In September, balanced schemes ( R99 crore), equity- linked saving schemes equity ELSS (R39 crore) and Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) (R988 crore) saw inflows.
In contrast, income schemes (R15,263 crore), liquid schemes (R41,078 crore), gilt schemes (R117 crore), other ETF (R186 crore) and fund of fund (FOF) schemes investing overseas (R56 crore) saw redemptions in September.
Market participants added banks and corporates continued to exit from the debt schemes. Dwijendra Srivastava, head of fixed income at Sundaram MF said, ?We have seen banks moving out from liquid schemes before the new regulation comes in January, 2012. Over 70-80% of banks have already rebalanced their portfolio and have brought down their total exposure in liquid schemes to nearly 10%.? According to RBI , from January 2012 banks can?t invest more then 10% of the networth of previous financial year in the liquid schemes.