MF assets base from smaller cities rises 31% to Rs 1.85 lakh crore

The contribution of the country's smaller towns -- known as beyond-15 cities (B15) -- to mutual funds asset base has surged by 31% over the last nine months of the current fiscal (2014-15) to Rs 1.85 lakh crore.

"Mutual Funds assets under management (AUM) from B15 locations grew from Rs 1.41 lakh crore during March 2014 to Rs 1.85 lakh crore at the end of December 2014," according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI).

About 16.3% of the assets of the mutual fund industry came from B15 locations in December 2014 as compared to 15.6% in March last year.

However, the share of T15 locations or top 15 cities in the assets of the mutual fund industry, dropped from 84.4% to 83.7% during the period under review.

Together, all 45 mutual fund houses manage assets worth over Rs 11 lakh crore.

Industry experts attributed the increase in contribution from B15 cities to investor awareness and education programmes by mutual fund houses as well as incentive schemes launched by capital markets regulator Sebi.

B15 cities are those which are beyond these top 15 cities -- New Delhi (including NCR) Mumbai (including Thane & Navi Mumbai), Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Panjim, Pune and Surat.

Interestingly, the rate of growth in assets for B15 locations was higher than industry average of 26%.

"B15 locations have a better balance of equity and non-equity assets. T15 locations are skewed in favour of non-equity assets due to the concentration of institutional investors," AMFI said.

"There was a shift away from non-equity schemes to equity schemes since March 2014. This was more marked in T15 locations," it added.

Assets managed by the mutual fund industry have grown from Rs 9.02 lakh crore in March last year to Rs 11.34 lakh crore in December 2014.