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The exit from equity mutual funds continued for the seventh month in a row, with a net outflow of ₹9,253 crore in January.
Almost all categories of equity funds, except for mid-cap and thematic funds logged outflows with flexi-cap recording the highest exits of ₹5,934 crore followed by large-cap and value funds at ₹2,853 crore and ₹1,640 crore, respectively, according to Association of Mutual Funds in India data.
In contrast, mid-cap and thematic funds registered inflows of ₹2,857 crore and ₹2,586 crore, respectively.
Highest outflow in flexi-cap
The outflow from the newly-created flexi-cap category was largely due to profit-booking and waiver of exit load on redemptions made within one year.
Of the 35 multi-cap funds, 16 were converted into flexi-cap in January. This has led to a change in the basic attributes of the schemes. Per SEBI norms, load-free exit has to be provided if the attributes of the scheme are changed.
Himanshu Srivastava, Associate Director, Morningstar India, said the net outflow from equity schemes would have been higher but for thematic fund NFOs raising ₹4,185 crore last month.
Inflows through systematic investment plans were down at ₹8,023 crore ₹8,418 crore logged in December. SIP assets under management were down to ₹3.90-lakh crore from ₹3.98-lakh crore in December.
Debt funds registered an outflow of ₹33,409 crore with liquid fund alone recording exits of ₹45,316 crore. For the first time in many months, Credit Risk fund saw inflows of ₹366 crore in January.
NS Venkatesh, Chief Executive, AMFI, said some of the debt categories, such as Corporate Bond, Banking and PSU and Short Duration Funds, saw positive flows due to the regulatory measures to ease liquidity and the RBI decision to hold on to the policy rates.
AUM down
Overall, the assets under management of mutual funds were down to ₹30.50-lakh crore in January against ₹31.02-lakh crore in December.
Gopal Kavalireddi, Head of Research at FYERS, said equity schemes have been under constant pressure since last July due to higher redemption by retail investors owing to below-expectation performance in earlier years.
Also, investors seem to believe that the buoyant stock market conditions are favourable to invest directly into equities rather than in MFs.
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