Mutual funds' assets rise 5% in June

The mutual fund industry’s assets continued to grow in June. The average assets under management grew (AAUM) from Rs 639,129.81 crore to Rs 670993.13 crore, a rise of 5 per cent, or Rs 31,863.32 crore.

Market experts attributed this to a sharp rise in inflows in liquid and debt schemes. Assets of equity schemes increased mostly due to rise in stock prices. High liquidity in the system also helped mutual funds as they were able to garner excess funds.

Lakshmi Iyer, head (fixed income), Kotak Mutual Fund, said, “Inflows were observed in ultra short-term and short-term funds as well as arbitrage funds.”

In terms of percentage growth, Edelweiss Mutual Fund registered the highest growth of Rs 117.11 per cent to Rs 45 crore compared with the last month’s figure of Rs 21 crore. Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund and DBS Chola Mutual Fund’s assets grew over 15 per cent (see table)

Bharti AXA witnesses the highest fall of 10.6 per cent. Taurus and Canara Robeco saw dips of over 5 per cent.

The largest fund house, Reliance Mutual Fund, registered 5.5 per cent growth. The fund house, which crossed the Rs 1 lakh figure last month, saw a rise of Rs 5602.01 crore.

Sundeep Sikka, chief executive officer, Reliance Mutual Fund, said, “We have seen inflows in all the categories this time. While there was participation from all classes of investors, institutional inflows were significant.”

ICICI Mutual Fund’s assets grew 7 per cent to Rs 70,169.4 crore while HDFC Mutual Fund’s assets grew 3.7 per cent to Rs 78,197.9 crore.

Saurabh Nanavati, chief executive officer, Religare Mutual Fund, said, “There were inflows in equity schemes as well as short-term funds. Corporate money, which had gone out of the industry in September and October, is beginning to come back because of the good performance of the equity markets.”