Mutual Fund folio count surges by over 7 lakh in Apr-Dec

Number of folios rose to 4.03 crore at the end of December 31, 2014: Amfi

Driven by addition in equity fund folios, mutual fund (MF) houses have registered a surge of more than 700,000 investor accounts in the first nine months of the current financial year. The addition comes after fund houses lost about 3.3 million investor accounts in the last financial year. Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts, though one investor can have multiple folios. According to the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on total investor accounts with 45 fund houses, the number of folios rose to 40.3 million at the end of December 31 from 39.5 million in the last financial year (2013-14) - a gain of 728,000.

Of 4.03 crore folios, retail investors accounted for 3.86 crore folios, followed by HNI accounts (13.22 lakh) and institutional investors (3.34 lakh).

Industry officials say the rise in retail folios is mainly due to addition in the equity segment, which was supported by sharp rally in the stock markets.

"Increased participation by retail investors in equities has undoubtedly led to increase in folio numbers. The industry's focus on investor awareness seems to have contributed to further growth, in terms of new investors coming in," HSBC Global Asset Management India CEO Puneet Chaddha said.

"The key contributing factors seem to be an uptick in sentiments and expectations of an investor friendly and reform-oriented government delivering on policy changes," he added.

The number of mutual investor accounts had been falling since March 2009 at about 2 per cent a year. Since March 2014, however, there is a arrest in the rate of decline, Amfi noted.

The equity category saw an addition of more than 12 lakh folios to 3.03 crore investors at the end of December 31, 2014.

The segment saw first rise in folios in April after reporting a consistent decline in investors account in last four years.

The addition in equity folios is in line with BSE's benchmark Sensex surging by 23 per cent in the first nine months of the current financial year.

Besides, nearly 80 per cent of the investor accounts are in equity oriented schemes, while 17 per cent of the accounts are in debt related schemes.