Equity MF inflows hit 4 month high in April

New Delhi: Equity mutual funds witnessed an inflow of Rs 9,429 crore in April, the highest in four months, due to participation from retail investors and steps taken by fund houses to create awareness about MFs.

This also marks the 13th straight month of inflows into equity schemes. Prior to that, such funds had witnessed a pullout of Rs 1,370 crore in March 2016. The strong inflows have pushed the asset base of equity mutual funds (MFs) by 5 per cent in April from the preceding month.

"Indian investors have now eventually assimilated mutual funds and the credit goes to awareness programs and endeavours by regulators and AMCs in mutual fund industry.

"Systematic investment plans (SIP) and Systematic Transfer Plan (STP) ways of investing have also given the investors a choice as well as flexibility of investing periodically or in lump sum as per their preference," Bajaj Capital CEO Rahul Parikh said.

According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), equity funds, which also include equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS), saw net inflows of Rs 9,429 crore in April, higher than Rs 8,216 crore in the preceding month.

This was the highest net inflow since December, when equity funds had witnessed an infusion of Rs 10,103 crore. In April 2016, these funds had seen a net inflow of Rs 4,438 crore. The assets under management (AUM) of equity MFs scaled a record high of Rs 5.69 lakh crore at the end of April 2017 from Rs 5.43 lakh crore at March-end.

"The mutual fund industry is at a take-off stage in terms of growth and Indian investors are focusing on investments in equity as an asset class," said Srikanth Meenakshi, COO, FundsIndia.com, an investment portal for MFs.

MFs are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others.