Mutuals reap rich harvest, AUM in April up 6%

Spurred by the return of corporate money, the Indian mutual fund industry added almost 6 per cent (Rs 8,566.83 crore) of assets under management (AUM) in the first month of the new financial year.

The total AUM rose from Rs 1,49,520.98 crore at the end of March 2005 to Rs 1,58,087.81 crore at the end of April, according to data from the Association of Mutual Fund of India (AMFI) website.

In an industry which is extremely concentrated in a few hands, 18 out of 27 mutual funds (for which data was available) reported gains in their AUM.

Hemant Rustagi, chief executive officer at Wiseinvest Advisors, a mutual fund distributor, said, "A typical trend of this industry is that money (mostly corporate) flows out in March (financial year-end) and comes back in April. This year is no different, besides we had also not seen a major fall in AUM in March because of huge IPO money coming in then."

In April, besides fresh money, a lot of corporate money has returned to the mutual funds, leading to a big jump in AUM, he added.

ABN AMRO Mutual Fund showed the biggest jump in AUM in relative terms, adding 70 per cent (Rs 649.40 crore).

Its AUM rose from Rs 923 crore at the end of March to Rs 1,572.40 crore at the end of April.

Standard Chartered Mutual Fund saw its AUM rise by 27 per cent (Rs 1,833.59 crore) from Rs 6,775.89 crore to Rs 8,609.48 crore, Deutsche Mutual Fund added 25 per cent (Rs 457.57 crore), its AUM rising from Rs 1,814.13 crore to Rs 2,271.70 crore, ING Vysya Mutual Fund's AUM jumped 24.29 per cent (Rs 289.27 crore) from Rs 1,191.06 crore to Rs 1,480.34 crore and Tata Mutual Fund AUM rose by 16 per cent (Rs 1,090.51 crore) from Rs 6,784.04 crore to Rs 7,874.55 crore.

The big five funds in terms of AUM had a mixed month in terms of mobilising assets. The biggest fund in India, the UTI Mutual Fund lost 1.26 per cent (Rs 261.13 crore) of AUM, down from Rs 20,739.57 crore to Rs 20,478.44.

Pru ICICI Mutual Fund added 6.27 per cent (Rs 953.46 crore), its AUM rising from Rs 15,200.92 crore to Rs 16,154.38, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund AUM rose by 2.47 per cent (Rs 379.41 crore) from Rs 15,353.61 crore to Rs 15,733.02 crore, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund AUM grew by 1.26 per cent (Rs 130.53 crore) to Rs 10,503.82 and HDFC MF saw its AUM rise by 1.08 per cent (Rs 162 crore) to Rs 15,171.88 crore.