The industry saw a net addition of 465,000 new folios, including 343,000 SIP folios, indicating sustained retail interest in mutual funds, said experts. N S Venkatesh, chief executive, Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), said: “Retail investors continue to exhibit mature investment behaviour despite a volatile and challenging economic environment, as seen from the record high retail AUMs, rise in SIP AUMs, SIP folios, and significantly higher quantum of flows towards multi-asset allocation schemes during the month.”
According to G Pradeep-kumar, CEO Union AMC, some investors may have taken a tactical asset allocation call by moving from equity to low-duration or ultra-short term funds, with an objective of re-entering equity funds at lower levels in the event of a correction in the equity market.
Ultra-short term, low-duration, and money-market funds together saw inflows of over Rs 18,000 crore, even as the debt category as a whole saw outflows of Rs 3,907 crore, led by redemptions in liquid and overnight funds of over Rs 26,000 crore.
“Given the current interest rate scenario, investors are largely focusing on fixed-income categories having a shorter-duration profile. In addition, funds with pristine credit quality, especially from categories, such as money market, corporate bond, and banking and PSU, continue to gain traction from investors highlighting their preference for safety in this segment,” said Srivastava.
He said investors continued to shy away from riskier bets in the credit space, which is why the credit risk funds saw outflows of Rs 554 crore.
Total AUM for the
MF industry stood at Rs 27.8 trillion at the end of August, up slightly from Rs 27.3 trillion at the end of the previous month.