MFs' asset base rises 3% in Feb

05-Mar-2010

Bakul Chugan Tongia ET INTELLIGENCE GROUP

The average assets under management, or AAUM, of the Indian Mutual Fund (MF) industry - declared so far - grew around 3% month-on-month in February 2010 on the back of short-term institutional fund flows. The 31 fund houses which have declared their AAUM numbers so far have reported gross AAUM of close to Rs 5,75,233 crore against Rs 5,56,858 crore in January 2010.

Amongst the larger fund houses, UTI Asset Management Company has reported an increase of around 6.4% while ICICI Prudential's AAUM shows an increase of 2.7% in February. The largest fund house of the country, Reliance, is yet to release its numbers. There are 38 fund houses that are currently operational in the country, including the newly-launched Peerless Mutual Fund which has disclosed a first-time average asset base of around Rs 121 crore. Jaideep Bhattacharya, CMO, UTI Asset Management, attributes the increase in assets to corporate inflows into liquid schemes and bank money which has begun to flow in once again. "Within the banking spectrum, it is the private and the foreign banks that have been the major investors," he adds.

Mr Bhattacharya pointed out that though high net worth individuals invested in a falling market, equity inflows have not been substantial. Moreover, despite this being a tax-saving season, equity-linked savings schemes were witnessing moderate inflows, he added.

According to Rajiv Anand, CEO, Axis Mutual Fund, whose fund house has seen an around 42% jump in AAUM since January 2010, "There have been fairly good inflows into money market instruments from the corporate side. However, on the equity front, including the ELSS, net inflows have been rather flat".

Source : www.insuremagic.com