Index fund folios up 12-fold since March 2020: Zerodha Fund House

The number of retail investment accounts in index funds has gone up 12-fold during the post-Covid period, shows an analysis by Zerodha Fund House. The total retail folios in index funds increased to 5.9 million in December 2023 from half a million in March 2020.

Data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) pegs the index fund retail accounts or folios at 7.2 million in March 2024.

The assets under management (AUM) of index funds, including both equity and debt funds, has recorded a staggering increase of 25 times from about Rs 8,000 crore in March 2020 to about Rs 2.1 trillion as of March 2024, the fund house said.

Index funds tracking the Nifty50 index account for a lion's share of the index fund AUM at Rs 52,211 crore. Sensex and Nifty Next 50 index funds are the other popular offerings.

However, the index fund growth has taken a hit in recent years with the change of debt fund taxation. Debt funds were the bigger contributors to the index fund AUM growth prior to April 2023. The debt index fund AUM, which was almost negligible till March 2021, went up sharply in the next two years. It has remained around Rs 1 trillion post-April 2023.

Godrej family arm plans to sell 5% stake in Sobha Ltd

Anamudi Real Estates, which is a part of the Godrej family, plans to sell its 5 per cent stake — worth around ~1,000 crore at the current market value — in Bengaluru-based Sobha Ltd, sources said. Acco­rding to the shareholding pattern, the firm has a 9.99 per cent stake in Sobha Ltd. The total market capitalisation of Sobha is nearly ~20,000 crore. Anamudi Real Estates holds 10,684,682 shares in the firm. According to sources, Godrej Family has appointed bankers to sell half of the total stake held by the Anamudi Real Estates in the Bengaluru-based firm.