MF assets rise 2.8% in July, slowest in 4 months

The mutual fund industry’s growth in July was the lowest in the last four months. Average asset under management (AAUM) of the industry grew a mere 2.8 per cent, or Rs 19,000 crore, to Rs 6.9 lakh crore in the month, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

Lack of fresh inflows into equity schemes led to the slowdown, felt industry experts. The growth in the AAUM of equity funds was mainly because of the rise in stock markets. There were hardly any inflows into new fund offerings (NFOs), which were launched to pre-empt the ban on entry load from August 1. The Sensex rose 8 per cent in June.

Among the top five funds, HDFC Mutual Fund witnessed the highest growth rate of 6.6 per cent. ICICI Mutual Fund’s and Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund’s grew 4.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively.

Reliance Mutual Fund, the largest fund house, saw a marginal growth of Rs 202 crore to Rs 1,08,334 crore. HDFC Mutual Fund’s assets rose to Rs 83,366 crore, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund’s AAUM rose to Rs 73,328.56 crore and Birla Sunlife’s rose to Rs 57,331.78 crore.

UTI Mutual Fund was the only fund house to register a decline in AAUM. Its assets fell by 1 per cent to Rs 67,251 crore.

Among the total of 38 funds, Edelweiss Mutual Fund registered the sharpest growth of 51.63 per cent to Rs 67.91 crore, whereas Religare Mutual Fund’s assets jumped 22 per cent to Rs 12,239 crore.