The asset under management of mutual fund industry was up five per cent at ₹27.85-lakh crore against ₹26.54-lakh crore on strong inflow into equity and debt funds.
Inflows into equity funds improved by ₹7,877 crore against ₹4,499 crore logged in December on buoyant market condition and hopes of a favourable Budget announcement.
Debt fund inflow at ₹1.09-lakh crore (outflow of ₹78,426 crore) even as credit risk fund witnessed an outflow of ₹1,215 crore.
Liquid fund recorded the highest inflow of ₹59,682 crore followed by overnight fund of ₹22,652 crore.
Retail asset under management registered a net inflow of ₹8,924 crore taking the over retail AUM to ₹12.95-lakh crore with 5.10 lakh folios.
Inflow through Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) was up marginally by ₹14 crore to ₹8,532 crore with the SIP AUM increasing by ₹7,846 crore to ₹3.25-lakh crore. The industry opened 12.07 lakh SIPs in January while 5.95 lakh of them either closed or matured last month. The overall SIP account in operations was at 3.03 crore.
NS Venkatesh, Chief Executive Officer, AMFI, said the industry expects to register 15-20 per cent growth in AUM next fiscal driven by growth-oriented Budget and RBI stance on continuing benign interest rate cycle. However, he refused to comment on the impact of inflows into ELSS (equity-linked tax saving schemes) after Budget inserted a new law that provides deduction-free lower tax regime.
Big leap in small-cap AUM
Sundeep Sikka, ED and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management, said while the small-cap funds have not been in flavour during the last few months, the recent market rally seems to have driven the inflows into small- and mid-cap fund inflows. As a result, the small-cap assets under management has also seen the biggest jump in the last 9 months.
G Pradeepkumar, CEO, Union Asset Management Company, said with the introduction of exit load in liquid funds and certain additional restrictions that will come into effect from April 1, 2020, there has been a shift from liquid funds to overnight.
The industry has seen 84 per cent increase in net flow in the last one year ended January 2020 while that of equity was up 23 per cent.
Eye on price correction
Vishal Kapoor, CEO, IDFC AMC, said within the equity space, small-, mid- and multi-cap categories more than doubled their inflows compared to December, indicating that investor willingness to look at categories which have had substantial price correction and where valuations are lower than historical averages.