Crisil's MF indices have a positive December

Crisil's mutual fund indices ended December 2007 on a positive note for the fourth month in a row.

The equity category, represented by Crisil Fund~eX, posted gains of 9.44 per cent, beating the S&P CNX Nifty, which closed with gains of 6.52 per cent.

Crisil Fund~bX, the index for balanced funds, reported returns of 7.24 per cent in December, while Crisil MIPEX, the index for monthly income plans, gave returns of 1.78 per cent.

Among the debt indices, Crisil MF~Gilt (the gilt funds index) reported the highest returns (1.73 per cent), followed by Crisil Fund~dX, the long-term bond funds index (1.02 per cent). Crisil STBEX, the index for short-term bond funds, had returns of 0.71 per cent, while Crisil~LX, the index for liquid funds, saw returns of 0.67 per cent, said a release.

The overall assets under management (AUM) in India's mutual fund industry closed the year 2007 at Rs 5.54 trillion, up 71 per cent over the December 2006 AUM of Rs 3.24 trillion. The December 2007 AUM grew marginally by 2 per cent (or Rs 123.8 billion) over that of November 2007.

Krishnan Sitaraman, head - fund services and fixed income research, Crisil FundServices, said, "The growth in the overall AUM in December was despite the advance tax outflows. It may be attributed to a combination of initial public offering listings and new fund offers, as well as inflows into debt funds."

Reliance Mutual Fund remains the largest fund house with an AUM of Rs 808 billion. UTI MF moved up one notch to the second place, with an AUM of Rs 569 billion, while ICICI Prudential MF occupied the third spot, with an AUM of Rs 568 billion. Mutual funds were net buyers in the secondary equity market to the extent of Rs 30.24 billion in December.

A major change in rules will be the new Know Your Client norms which will come into effect from next month. Investments of Rs 50,000 and more in mutual funds will need to comply with know-your-client (KYC) norms from February 1. PAN cards would be a must for mutual fund investments from January 1.