Mutual fund (MF) managers are power-packed. Fund managers have invested around Rs 22,816.27 crore in the energy sector, which comes to around 14% of MF industry?s total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 5.56 lakh crore as of October 2007. This is an increase of around 4.15% from last financial year (FY) till October 2006 when around Rs 9,437.31 crore were as invested in the energy sector.
Close on the heels of the energy sector is the financial sector, where around 13.51% of the total AUM or Rs 22,530.78 crore have been invested. This is an increase of around 4.5% from the previous year, when 9.01% of the AUM or Rs 8,920.18 crore was dedicated to the financial sector.
Though the figures for November 2007 are yet to come, fund managers say this trend has continued in November also and will continue for some more time now.
Gautami Desai, fund manager, UTI MF said, ”We feel that power and energy are the next big growth story and returns will be the maximum from this sector. Energy powers the economic growth of any nation. Availability of energy with required quality of supply is the key to sustain our current GDP growth. Steps are being taken in that direction so that the supply meets the demand, which means that going forward this sector will grow between 40- 50% CAGR.”
Another fund manager said, ”The financial services sector is picking up pace and will continue to grow in the future considering the India growth story. Similar is the case with the energy sector, as the growth potential here too is bright.”
However, some sectors have also fallen off the fund manager?s favoured list. Fund managers had exposure of around 15.31% or had invested Rs 15,157.69 crore in the technology sector in October 2006, but they have reduced their exposure in the technology sector which has come down to around 12% or Rs 20, 713.90 crore as on October 2007.