With 53 launches, here's the fundraising by equity NFOs so far in FY18

The current financial year has been a strong year for the mutual fund (MF) sector in terms of flows into the equity segment through New Fund Offers (NFOs).
 
There were 54 new launches (both open and closed-end funds) in this category, including equity-linked savings schemes. The money raised through this was Rs 247.4 billion, a more than fivefold jump against the previous year. Further, the contribution of equity NFOs in overall equity flows increased to 15 per cent, from less than seven per cent in the previous year.
 
In FY18 (till February), inflow into equity schemes has been Rs 1.6 trillion, compared to Rs 702 billion in FY17. The figure indicates a lot of investors still prefer NFOs and many fund houses, aware of this, are tapping these investors to raise funds.
 
Further, the rising number of closed-end offers makes sure the raised funds remain intact for at least three-five years. After 2009, a few years had seen NFOs going out of vogue. However, the past four years have seen rising numbers of such offers, from across fund houses.