Mutual fund assets soar 42% to Rs 17.5 trillion in FY17

The assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund (MF) industry saw an exceptional growth of 42 per cent at Rs 17.5 trillion in financial year 2017 from Rs 12.3 trillion a year ago, says a report.

The quarterly average assets under management also registered a quarter-on-quarter growth of 8 per cent in the Marc quarter, rating agency Icra said quoting the data collated by the industry lobby Association of Mutual Funds in India.

Investors poured in an additional Rs 3.4 trillion across categories during the year under review.

Net inflows in liquid, income and equity (including equity linked savings schemes or ELSS) categories saw fresh investment of Rs 1.2 trillion, Rs 96,000 crore and Rs 70,000 crore respectively, Icra said.

Equity funds (including ELSS) witnessed net inflows of Rs 8,216 crore in the March quarter, up from Rs 6,462 crore in February. During the quarter, assets of equity funds (including ELSS) reached an all-time high of Rs 5.4 trillion.

The category witnessed month-on-month jump of 4.5 per cent and a year-on-year growth of 40.7 per cent.

In fiscal 2017, the total inflow into the category stood at Rs 70,367 crore with net inflows in every month.

According to Amfi, the industry added about 6.2 lakh systematic investment plan accounts every month on an average during the year (till February), with an average ticket size of Rs 3,100 per account.

In the year gone by, the industry added 77.4 lakh new folios, or around 6.4 lakh new folios every month, despite volatility in the overall market conditions, the report said.

March saw the highest number of folios added in a month in the entire fiscal at 10.1 lakh. The growth was driven by the ELSS category that added 3.2 lakh folios in the month.

Out of the 10.1 lakh folios, 7.4 lakh came from the equity (including the ELSS) category.

The folio count for the liquid category more than doubled in the year, suggesting that retail investors are looking at this route for surplus cash deposit.