Average assets under management (AAUM) of the mutual fund sector touched the Rs 11.88 lakh crore mark in the March quarter, even as it added assets of over Rs 2.83 lakh crore over the last one year, largely due to improvement in the equity markets.
According to Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) data, the total AAUM of 44 fund houses stood at R11,88,535.30 crore in the quarter ended March, which was a surge of 31% against R9,05,120.71 crore in the quarter ended March 2014.
Milind Barve, HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) MD, said, “In terms of growth, this was the best year for the mutual fund industry. Two factors led to higher inflows into the mutual funds. First, Lok Sabha election results, and second, an overall improvement in the macro factors that brought many investors to the equity and debt funds.”
In the MF industry, assets of HDFC AMC topped at R1.61 lakh crore in the March quarter, a growth of 43.09% y-o-y. Assets of ICICI Prudential AMC and Reliance AMC stood at R1.48 lakh crore and R1.37 lakh crore, respectively, in the March quarter. “I would also say that a lot of money came in from the B-15 cities as a result of the aggressive investor awareness programmes by the mutual fund houses in the last few years,” said Barve.
Other top fund houses like Birla Sun Life AMC and UTI AMC also saw their assets growing 34.48% and 24.94%, respectively, in the last one year. The assets of Birla Sun Life AMC stood at R1.19 lakh crore and UTI AMC was at R92,750 crore in the quarter ended March.
Market participants are expecting the inflows into equity and debt funds to continue going forward. “I don’t think correction in the markets will have much negative impact on the flows. Even in the last few months, when markets have been volatile we have received smart flows into our equity funds. Mutual fund industry will continue to grow at a steady rate even in the next two-three years,” said the CEO of the top fund house.