MFs add 7.7 mn accounts in Apr-Oct, take total to all-time high of 80 mn

Growing investors' interest in mutual fund has led to an addition of nearly 7.7 million new folios in the first seven months of the current fiscal, taking the total to an all-time high of around 80 million at the end of October.

This follows an addition of 16 million accounts in 2017-18 fiscal, over 6.7 million folios in 2016-17 and 5.9 million in 2015-16.

Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts, though an investor can have multiple accounts.

According to the data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on total investor accounts with 41 active players, the number of folios rose to a record 7,90,31,596 at the end of October this year, up from 7,13,47,301 at the end March 2018, registering a gain of 7.68 million.

Over the last few years, investor accounts have increased following robust contribution from retail investors, especially from smaller towns and huge inflows in equity schemes.

Folios in equity and equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS) grew by 6.6 million to 60 million. Besides, folios in balanced category surged by 4.4 lakh to over 6.3 million during the period under review. Further, folios in income funds rose by 560,000 to 11.3 million

Overall, mutual funds have seen an inflow of over Rs 810 billion during April-October period of the current fiscal (2018-19), while equity schemes alone attracted an impressive inflow of over Rs 750 billion.

However, a net withdrawal of Rs 1.23 trillion was witnessed from income schemes -- a type of debt mutual funds that deliver a steady income. Besides, gold ETFs continued to see a net outflow of Rs 2900 million.

Mutual funds are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors.