Liquid, Money Funds Rake It In During Oct

Liquid and money market schemes were on a roll in October, garnering a maximum of Rs 6,973 crore, while income funds mobilised only Rs 3,841 crore during the month. The industry as a whole saw a net inflow of Rs 341 crore during the month.

According to figures released by the Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) here today, in October, the sector received inflows worth Rs 11,279 crore. Growth or equity funds attracted only Rs 95 crore, while gilt funds saw a modest Rs 352 crore inflow.

The remaining money flowed into balanced and equity linked savings schemes.

The last week of October, however, saw sentiments change in the stock market as investors shunned equity schemes. Industry watchers, however, said that investors should have taken a contrarian approach and taken advantage of the cheap valuation of various schemes in this genre. In fact, equity-oriented schemes saw a net outflow of Rs 89 crore during the month.

The redemption figure show that liquid schemes were actually left with a net outflow of Rs 592 crore at the end of the month, while income schemes, even with a lower gross mobilisation, were left with a net accretion of Rs 989 crore. Industry circles explained this saying that investors were now interested in income generating schemes - "a steady income is what most investors are looking at," said a fund manager. Since the debt market has been relatively stable compared to equity markets, industry watchers said that the inflows into income schemes made sense. Liquid schemes still served as temporary parking space for corporates' idle money.

As on October 31, 2001, assets under the management of income schemes were the highest at Rs 52,860 crore, while balanced schemes had Rs 17,216 crore and equity schemes Rs 10,692 crore.