Investors infuse Rs 3,000 crore in gilt funds in Dec quarter

The funds were garnered merely in three months' period

Post Lehman collapse, it's the first time that mutual fund industry has been able to attract fresh inflows in its gilt funds (primarily invest in government securities).

According to the statistics available from Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), sales in the Gilt segment rose sharply to Rs 2,548 crore. This is more than a thousand crore witnessed in the immediate previous month of November.

Net inflows remained close to a thousand crore mark, taking the overall net inflow for the current financial year so far (April-December) to Rs 2,551 crore against an outflow of Rs 506 crore during the same period last year.

Thanks to the expectations building up for cuts in interest rate sooner or later at the beginning of next year.

Sector's fixed income heads say that it is mainly on the back of rate cuts hope that investors are flocking towards investment in gilt funds. Going forward too, they add that gilt would continue to be investors' one of the favourites investment avenues.

Mutual fund industry is finding many takers among retail and high networth individuals (HNIs) especially for the gilt funds of late. In terms of assets, proportion of assets in gilt from these two investors' class have risen around 75% over the last one year.

Recent Gilt fund launches by players like IDBI Mutual Fund and Indiabulls MF have garnered reasonable chunk of funds of Rs 100-125 crore which is a clear signal that investors' tilt towards this asset class is on the rise.

Currently, industry offers 40 gilt funds to investors. With massive inflows in recent months, the overall asset under management in the category stands at Rs 6,500 crore.

Inflows and sales so far in FY13

Month	NetInflow	Sales
April	-230	209
May	-371	163
June	115	349
July	21	268
August	-31	294
September	39	240
October	1,018	1,370
November	1,006	1,488
December	985	2,548
All figures in Rs crore
Source: Association of Mutual Funds in India