Average assets under management (AUM) of India’s mutual fund industry have risen to its highest since September 2010. Thanks to the inflows into income and gilt funds, the sector posted a gain of 5.3 per cent in its AUM in the October-December quarter at Rs 7.87 lakh crore.
Ever since industry body the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) started declaring AUM data on a quarterly basis in September 2010, fund industry at large has been doing good in terms of asset growth. Moreover, assets gain in the December quarter was the third consecutive quarterly rise in mutual fund assets.
According to a report by Crisil, long-term debt and gilt funds reported a sharp rise in their assets in the December quarter due to inflows led by expectations that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would lower its key interest rates in the near future. The RBI, in its policy review of December 2012, had mentioned that the recent ebbing in inflation rates reinforced its guidance for policy easing in January-March 2013.
| ON A GOOD NOTE Category-wise average AUM (Rs cr) | ||||
| Mutual fund categories | Oct-Dec 2012 | Jul-Sept 2012 | Change | Change % |
| Equity | 210,700 | 202,300 | 8,400 | 4 |
| Money market | 171,700 | 178,000 | -6,300 | -4 |
| Ultra short term | 112,800 | 115,000 | -2,200 | -2 |
| Short term debt | 59,100 | 41,300 | 17,800 | 43 |
| Long term debt | 63,200 | 390,00 | 24,200 | 62 |
| Gilt | 4,800 | 3,300 | 1,500 | 45 |
| Fixed maturity plans | 109,300 | 119,000 | -9,700 | -8 |
| Other debt-oriented | 39,100 | 35,200 | 3,900 | 11 |
| Gold ETFs | 11,700 | 10,600 | 1,100 | 10 |
| Others | 4,100 | 3,600 | 500 | 13 |
| Total | 786,500 | 747,300 | 39,200 | 5 |
| Source - CRISIL Mutual Fund Database | ||||
Equity assets, the segment which has been avoided by investors for long, witnessed a growth of four per cent to Rs 2.11 lakh crore in the quarter. Despite continuous outflows, equity assets managed to grow on the back of post-September upward move in the stock markets.
