Mutual fund investors in equity schemes are not yet rushing to redeem their units but inflows have dried up substantially, said mutual fund distributors.
Analysts said the fall in market has been so steep and sudden that there’s inertia; nobody wants to exit at a loss. But there could be some redemptions when the market starts picking up.
K Sridhar, vice-president at Karvy, said there’s not much redemption but inflows into equity schemes have dried up by 71 per cent this year, according to the data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). However, last month saw net inflows of Rs 604 crore in equity schemes against redemptions of Rs 232 crore in August 2008.
On Friday noon, the stock market circles were abuzz with rumours that equity schemes are facing redemption pressures. “If that happens, it means that the retail investors are willing to book a loss, in which case, funds could be forced to sell to honour the redemptions,’’ said the investor relations head with a company.
But there’s no need to panic. Equity schemes of mutual funds account for roughly a third of their assets under management, which was Rs 5.29 lakh crore in September-end, 2008. The market cap on September 30 was Rs 42.07 lakh crore, which was down to Rs 34.40 lakh crore last Friday.
So, even if funds are forced to sell to honour redemptions, it should not have a significant impact on the stock markets as equity schemes (approximate Rs 1.59 lakh crore) accounted for only a 3.78 per cent of the market cap on September 30.
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Experts say that unlike a stock market investor, the mutual fund investor tends to think more long term, and would be sceptical to redeem his investments at a loss, unless he has a more attractive investment opportunity that yields a higher return.
“The psychology of the mutual fund investor is that if you are wrong or got stuck, wait till you can recoup your capital,’’ said Sridhar. Retail investors may be sitting on losses of 20-30 per cent on their equity funds portfolio, estimated experts.