These are bad times for the mutual fund sector and certainly for the Unit Trust of India. Total assets under management of mutual funds declined 7.6 per cent during September, while UTI's assets declined 7.2 per cent during the month.
Latest figures on the mutual fund sector released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) show that assets under management of mutual funds were of the order of Rs 99,335.76 crore as at the end of August 2001, while, at the end of September, the figure had declined to Rs 91,811 crore.
In the case of UTI, the net assets for September were Rs 48,212.51 crore compared with Rs 53,054.8 crore in the previous month -- an attestation to the severe beating that mutual funds have been forced to take.
Also Read
Though gross mobilisations have gone up from Rs 50,630.25 crore as on August-end to Rs 64,045.7 crore as of end-September, industry circles said the gross figures had no meaning when net accretions -- for the entire six months of the current fiscal -- were only of the order of Rs 6584.56 crore.
UTI's redemptions during the first six months to September have been to the tune of Rs 7,246 crore, leaving it with a net outflow of Rs 3,927 crore during the period, while other public and private sector funds have reported positive net inflows.
According to industry officials, most of the inflow can be accounted for by the liquid funds - typically money of a short-term nature. These funds mopped up Rs 9,959 crore during September while redemptions were of the level of Rs 9,204 crore, leaving them with a net inflow of Rs 755 crore.
A quick look at the assets under management in terms of funds categories shows that assets with money market funds are only Rs 9113 crore as on September-end. Income funds, where the longer term investor puts in the money, had assets of Rs 51,359 crore on September 30, while balanced funds had Rs 15,898 crore and growth funds Rs 10,383 crore.
Investors have not shown interest in balanced funds, which could attract only Rs 6 crore during the month. Growth or equity schemes managed a small inflow of Rs 179 crore though redemptions were at Rs 121 crore.
Surprisingly, income funds have ended the month with a net outflow - redemptions of Rs 5,828 crore during the month against sales figure of Rs 2,783 crore.