MF industry AUM drops 5% in Oct-Dec qtr at Rs 6.75 lakh cr

The average assets under management of the mutual fund industry declined by a hefty 5 per cent during the October-December quarter, with country's largest fund house Reliance MF's assets shrinking by over Rs 5,000 crore.

The industry's average assets under management (AUM) fell by Rs 37,904 crore, or 5.31 per cent, in October-December period.

The combined average AUM of 40 fund houses stood at Rs 6,75,376.97 crore at the end of December, down from Rs 7.13 lakh crore in end-September, as per information available with the industry body AMFI.

At the end of December 2010, the AUM of Reliance Mutual Fund stood at Rs 1,02,066.21 crore, a decline of Rs 5,682.32 crore or 5.27 per cent from the assets managed in September-end.

Country's second largest fund house HDFC MF also saw its asset base shrink by Rs 5,222 crore, or 5.61 per cent, to Rs 87,883.09 crore. ICICI Prudential MF's assets declined by Rs 3,886 crore or 5.57 per cent to Rs 65,841 crore.

Among the other fund houses UTI MF's assets fell by 3.29 per cent to Rs 65,387 crore and LIC MF's by 5 per cent to Rs 18,695 crore.

However, a few fund houses like Axis MF, Benchmark MF, Fidelity MF, Mirae Asset MF and Pramerica MF among others saw their assets rise in the range of 4-75 per cent during this period.

Mirae Asset Global Investments (India) Chief Executive Arindam Ghosh said, "We have introduced different product mix during the December quarter. This has led to an increase in inflows into several schemes. We mostly have equity funds."

Of the 40 fund houses in the country at the end of December, as many as 30 witnessed their asset base dwindle.

At the of December the AUM of Mirae Assets stood at Rs Rs 328 crore, Pramerica MF at Rs 1,108 crore and Axis Mf at Rs 5,013 crore.

Experts said the MF industry came under redemption pressure as banks and corporates withdrew investments to meet the quarter end liquidity needs and advance tax payments, respectively.

This is the first time that the mutual fund industry is disclosing their AUM data on an quarterly basis. Till September, the MFs used to disclose AUMs on a monthly basis.