Year-end withdrawals pull Mutual Fund assets down 5%

The average assets under management (AAUM) of domestic funds fell 5 per cent in March as compared to February. This was mainly due to the closure of the financial year and redemptions by financial institutions in the later part of the month.

According to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), the AAUM for March were Rs 7,43,950.45 crore as against Rs 7,81,711.52 crore in February.

Of the 38 players in the domestic market, only 13 could manage to increase their assets. Among the top five fund houses, UTI Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential showed growth, with a rise of 1.14 per cent and 0.57 per cent, respectively. The largest fund house, Reliance MF, registered a decline of 4.6 per cent in assets, whereas HDFC MF and Birla Sun Life MF witnessed a fall of 6.7 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.
 

STOCK-TAKING
Top five losers in March		Top five gainers in March
Fund house	Decline(%)	Fund house	Decline(%)
JP Morgan	23.68	Peerless	149.88
AIG Global	20.62	Edelweiss	30.43
Shinsei MF	19.93	DSP BlackRock	7.81
Deutsche MF	16.35	Quantum	5.52
JM Financial	15.87	ING MF	5.46

Performance of top five players
Fund house	AAUM*

Change (%) Reliance MF

1,10,412.70

-4.61 HDFC MF88,779.84-6.69 ICICI MF80,988.840.57 UTI MF80,217.801.14 Birla MF62,343.37-5.98 *Average assets under management (Rs crore)

“Since it was the end of the quarter as well as the financial year, banks might have played a major role in redemptions. Even companies would have taken out funds in view of the financial year coming to an end,” said Arindam Ghosh, chief executive office, Mirae Asset MF.

“At the same time, substantial investments could not come due to investors’ other investment needs at the end of the year,” said the investment head of a large fund house who sought anonymity.

Peerless MF, which launched its funds last month, was the top gainer, with a rise of 150 per cent in AAUM, followed by Edelweiss MF (30.5 per cent), DSP BlackRock (7.8 per cent) and Quantum MF (5.5 per cent).

Among top losers were JP Morgan MF, whose assets fell 23.7 per cent, followed by AIG Global Investment (20.6 per cent), Shinsei MF (19.9 per cent) and Deutsche MF (16.35 per cent).