Mutual Fund assets cross 13 trillion mark in July-Sep: Crisil

Helped by buoyant investor sentiments, domestic Mutual Fund (MF) industry's asset under management (AUM) surged 7% to cross the Rs 13 trillion mark for the quarter ended September 2015, rating agency Crisil said.

Driven by rise in equity and debt-oriented funds, the industry added Rs 872.39 billion to end with average assets worth Rs 13.16 trillion, during the July-September period.

This is the eighth consecutive quarter rise in AUM for MF industry.

"The domestic MF industry crossed yet another milestone, after its average AUM crossed the Rs 13 trillion-mark in the quarter ended September 2015," Crisil said in its latest report.

"The industry recorded the largest absolute gain in assets, ever since the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) started declaring quarterly average AUM data in September 2010," it noted.

Led by robust inflows of Rs 274.56 billion, equity mutual funds' AUM hit a record high of Rs 4.36 trillion for the quarter.

According to Crisil, investors remained buoyant on equity mutual funds despite ongoing volatility.

Debt funds gained 9.79% with long-term funds (including gilt funds) gaining on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India would ease rates, while short term funds showed steady growth.

"The central bank lowered its key repo rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 6.75% in the latest quarter, after a 25 bps-cut earlier," the report said.

"Further, gains were capped by outflows of Rs 264.53 billion in the last month of the quarter, on risk aversion, which trimmed overall flows to Rs 70.65 billion for the period," it added.

Meanwhile, change in the tax structure of debt funds continued to impact fixed maturity plans (FMPs), it noted.

The category's AUM fell for the fifth consecutive quarter by Rs 18.50 billion to Rs 1.14 trillion.

Of the 43 fund houses (including infrastructure debt funds) that declared their average AUM, 38 recorded growth.

HDFC Mutual Fund remained the leader among fund houses in the September quarter, with respect to total assets managed.

The fund's average AUM rose 3.5% to Rs 1.71 trillion.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund maintained second position at Rs 1.65 trillion, while Reliance Mutual Fund was ranked third with Rs 1.53 trillion worth of AUM.

Share of top 10 fund houses declined marginally in quarter ended September.