 "mutual funds")
Inflows into India's equity mutual funds rose in December, driven by a sustained preference for small-caps, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Monday.
Net equity mutual fund inflows rose to Rs 16,997 crore last month from Rs 15,536 crore in November, the data showed.
Small-cap funds accounted for most of the investments for the 15th straight month at Rs 3,857 crore, more than one-fifth of the overall equity mutual fund inflows.
In contrast, mid-cap funds saw inflows nearly halving month-on-month to Rs 1,393 core, while large-caps witnessed outflows of Rs 281 crore, in December.
This is the 34th consecutive month of inflows on a net basis.
The sustained domestic inflows along with record monthly buying by foreign portfolio investors drove India's benchmarks Nifty 50 and Sensex to all-time highs, rising about 8 per cent each in December.
Mutual fund inflows in equity-oriented schemes were at Rs 1.62 trillion in 2023, supporting the 20 per cent rise in the Sensex and the Nifty, as well as powering the small- and mid-caps.
The domestic inflows into mutual funds have been particularly strong in the small- and mid-cap segments, said Saion Mukherjee and Amlan Jyoti Das, research analysts at Nomura.
"With global interest rates peaking and possibly no large macro disruptions in the system, we think the domestic flow support to the market can sustain," they added.
The small- and mid-cap indexes gained about 56 per cent and 47 per cent in 2023, respectively, helped by inflows worth Rs 40,733 crore and Rs 22,404 crore through equity-oriented mutual fund schemes.
Contributions into systematic investment plans (SIPs) - in which investors make regular payments into mutual funds - hit a new record of Rs 17,610 crore last month, with the number of SIP accounts also climbing to a new high of Rs 76.37 million.
