Assets decline at top fund houses in September

Several fund houses reported a decline in their assets under management (AUM) during the month of September. Huge outflows from certain debt schemes and correction in stock prices impacted assets, say industry players. 

While the overall AUM declined one per cent in September over the previous month, several fund houses witnessed a much bigger dent.

HSBC Mutual Fund, DHFL Pramerica, LIC Mutual Fund and Axis Mutual Fund saw the steepest double-digit drop in AUM. The top five fund houses – ICICI Prudential, HDFC, Aditya Birla Sun Life, Reliance Nippon and SBI Mutual Fund saw an average three per cent decline in AUM. 

Mid-sized asset management companies Mirae Assets and Motilal Oswal, however, bucked the trend and reported a five per cent increase in their asset base. Both the fund houses are more focused on the equity segment. Many of their established funds have a good performance track record.

Industry players say while the stock market corrected, the losses were offset by huge retail inflows into equity schemes. The decline in AUM was largely on account of redemptions in debt schemes, particularly income and money-market schemes. 

Fund houses that garner large assets in their short-term-focused funds saw high redemptions. Industry players say this is a regular phenomenon at the end of every quarter.

The income funds offered by debt mutual funds had net outflows of over Rs 50,000 crore in September. The liquid and money market schemes saw net inflows of just Rs 4,833 crore compared with Rs 21,352 crore in the previous month.