Private sector corporate lenders see a spurt in flows from mutual funds

Fund managers wary of raising bets on state-owned banks fearing government intervention

The private sector corporate lenders are seeing a spurt in flows from mutual funds (MFs), as fund managers expect improvement in asset quality to trigger a positive cycle of lower provisions and higher profits.  

In December, fund houses directed Rs 2,532 crore of flows into ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, which was 22 per cent higher than the flows these banks saw in the previous month. According to data analysed by Prabhudas Lilladher, MFs’ flows into ICICI Bank and Axis Bank accounted for more than two-fifth of the flows that were directed towards the large-caps.  

Fund houses also had a high-consensus ‘buy’