Mutual fund houses load up on government securities and treasury bills

Mutual funds (MFs) have been increasing their exposure to government securities (G-Secs) and treasury bills (T-bills) among debt schemes to ensure enough liquidity buffers are in place to deal with systemic troubles in debt markets.

MF schemes deployed Rs 1.8 trillion in G-Secs and T-bills in August, which is 52 per cent higher than in last August, before the IL&FS crisis led to panic across debt markets.

The data sourced from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed that in August, 12.78 per cent of funds deployed by debt schemes were in G-Secs and T-bills. The share was