MF industry beats quarter-end blues; AUM rises 3.7%

The country's mutual fund industry shrugged off the quarter-end withdrawal jitters for the first time since June 2009, with the assets under management rising 3.7 per cent in September.

The industry's average assets under management (AUM) rose by Rs 25,721 crore, or 3.74 per cent, in September compared to last month. The combined average AUM of 39 fund houses stood at Rs 7,13,280.78 crore at the end of the September quarter.

The last time the industry witnessed an increase in AUM on a quarter-ending month was in June 2009.

The industry's assets had grown by over 5 per cent month-on-month in June last year.

Usually the MF industry witnesses some redemption pressure at the end of every quarter on the back of hefty pull outs by the banks and corporates.

Analysts said huge inflow into the debt and money market schemes helped the industry record gains at the end of September quarter.

The country's largest fund house Reliance MF saw an addition of Rs 3,237 crore, or 3.1 per cent, to its average assets at over Rs 1.07 lakh crore, data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed.

The assets of the second-largest fund house, HDFC MF, increased to Rs 93,105.58 crore, a rise of Rs 2,927 crore or over 3 per cent over the last month.

At the end of September, the asset base of ICICI Prudential MF stood at Rs 69,727.52 crore and UTI MF at Rs 67,617.72 crore. While, UTI MF's AUM increased by Rs 3,445 crore, ICICI Pru MF managed to add only Rs 959 crore. September is the second consecutive month when the mutual fund industry witnessed an increase in its AUM.

The industry had witnessed a decline in  their asset base for two months -- June and July -- on account of withdrawal by corporates and banks.

The other fund houses which saw an increase in its AUM include SBI MF (7 per cent), Kotak Mahindra MF (6.9 per cent), Tata MF (9 per cent) and Franklin Templeton MF (5.7 per cent).

However, some funds like Deutsche MF, Shinsei MF and Baroda Pioneer MF saw a dip in their monthly AAUM for September.