Mutual Funds offloaded shares worth Rs 14,000 crore in FY14

Mutual funds offloaded shares worth more than Rs 14,000 crore during the FY 2013-14, making it the fifth consecutive year of net outflows.

As per the latest data compiled by market regulator Sebi, mutual funds (MFs) sold shares worth Rs 14,208 crore during the last fiscal, lower than the Rs 22,749 crore offloaded in the preceding financial year (2012-13).

The financial year ended March 31, 2014, also marked the fifth consecutive year of net outflows by mutual funds in the equities after pumping in a net amount of Rs 6,985 crore in the share market in 2008-09.

During the last five financial years till 2013-14, MFs had cumulatively sold shares worth over Rs 68,000 crore from equities.

In comparison, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made a net inflow of a staggering nearly Rs 80,000 crore in equities in 2013-14.

However, FIIs kept away from the debt market and pulled out net sum of over Rs 28,000 crore during the fiscal in the segment due to weakness in the Indian currency.

During 2013-14, MFs were net sellers of equities in 10 out of 12 months, while May and August were the only months to record net inflows. MFs had put in Rs 3,508 crore and Rs 1,607 crore in equity schemes in May and August respectively.

The huge sell-off during the year coincided with a rise of 3,550.50 points, or 19%, in the Sensex.

On the contrary, mutual funds took a bullish stance on the debt market during 2013-14 with a net investment of Rs 5.43 lakh crore.

A mutual fund is an investment vehicle with a pool of funds collected from investors to buy securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

At present, there are about 1,540 schemes under mutual funds, of which 1,090 schemes (71% of the overall schemes) were income or debt oriented while about 350 schemes (23% of total schemes) were growth or equity related.