Mutual fund assets jump close to 30% at Rs 20.4 trillion in Sep

Mutual funds' assets under management (AUM) grew at a healthy 29.13 per cent at Rs 20.40 trillion in September, up from Rs 15.8 trillion a year ago.

On a monthly basis, however, the AUM declined to Rs 20.40 trillion from Rs 20.59 trillion a month ago, which the industry body Amfi attributed to the quarter-end phenomenon.

According to the Amfi data collated by Icra, during the past 19 quarter-end months, AUM has declined on 17 instances.

Total net outflow in September stood at Rs 16,604 crore with the maximum outflow of Rs 50,090 crore witnessed in the income category. Equity (including equity linked savings schemes or ELSS), balanced and liquid/money funds saw inflows to the tune of Rs 18,936 crore, Rs 8,141 crore and Rs 4,833 crore, respectively.

Monthly net inflow in equity funds (including ELSS) grew 406 per cent at Rs 18,936 crore.

According to the Amfi data, the amount collected through SIPs rose to Rs 5,516 crore in September.

Total folio count at the end of September stood at 6.20 crore, 2 percent higher compared with August, as per the Sebi data.

The growth was mainly driven by the addition of 9.24 lakh new folios to the equity category (including ELSS) and 2.16 lakh new folios to the balanced category.

The industry added 59.1 lakh new folios in the first six months of fiscal 2018 of which the contribution of equity (including ELSS) and balanced categories is an astounding 91 percent or 54 lakh folios.

The smaller towns or B15 (beyond top 15 cities) locations accounted for 17.7 percent of the total industry AUM in September.

In the last 12 months, B15 towns have witnessed AUM growth of 38.5 per cent or Rs 1.05 trillion to reach Rs 3.79 trillion at end-September from Rs 2.74 trillion a year ago.

In September, the share of direct plans in B15 towns stood at 21 percent when compared to 46.1 percent in top 15 or T15 cities.