Investors pumped ₹1.2 lakh crore into various mutual fund schemes in January, after pulling out a massive ₹62,000 crore in the preceding month, primarily on account of infusion in liquid and overnight schemes.

Mutual fund inflows will gather further momentum in the coming months, Union Asset Management Company CEO G Pradeepkumar said.

According to data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), net inflow of ₹1.2 lakh crore was witnessed in mutual fund schemes last month as compared to an outflow of ₹61,810 crore in December.

Fund managers attributed the growth in asset base to strong inflow of around ₹1.09 lakh crore in debt-oriented schemes.

Among debt-oriented schemes, liquid funds, with investments in cash assets such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper for shorter horizon, received flows worth about ₹59,683 crore, the highest among the fixed-income segment last month.

In addition, overnight funds, which invest in securities with maturity of one day, received inflow of about ₹22,652 crore.

“On the fixed-income side one of the noticeable trends is a shift away from liquid funds toward overnight funds. With the introduction of exit load in liquid funds and certain additional restrictions that will come into effect from April 1, 2020, we expect this trend to continue,” Pradeepkumar said.

The open-ended equity and equity-linked saving schemes witnessed an infusion of ₹7,877 crore, while there was an outflow of ₹330 crore in close-ended equity plans, taking total equity inflows to ₹7,547 crore last month. In December, net inflows in such schemes stood at ₹4,432 crore.

Small-cap, mid-cap and large-cap funds saw inflows of ₹1,073 crore, ₹1,798 crore and ₹1,154 crore, respectively, in January.

It is interesting to note this flow is well spread between the category of funds such as large-cap, mid-cap and multi-cap.

During January 2020, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 rose 5.31 per cent and 6.71 per cent, respectively.

“With overall sentiments improving on the back of softer crude oil prices and lower interest rates as also unconventional steps taken by RBI recently has led to expectations of further softening of interest rates. These factors should help to sustain the growth in equity markets in the near term,” Pradeepkumar added.

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