Mutual Funds rally unexpectedly
04 Feb 2009
A strong rally in the debt market, fuelled largely by the good performance of assets under Reliance Mutual Fund and HDFC MF, helped the mutual fund industry record a Rs10,000 crore, or 9.5 per cent, monthly increase in total assets during January. At the same time, assets under equity schemes showed a dip.
At the end of January, assets under management (AUM) in the MF industry stood at Rs4.6 lakh crore, up from Rs4.2 lakh crore in December, data released by Association of Mutual Funds in India showed.
The AMFI report showed that most of the MF houses recorded a rise in their January AUM. Among the top five fund houses, Birla SunLife MF showed the highest rise in assets of 15.3 per cent.
While Reliance and HDFC MFs retained the top two slots, ICICI Prudential, UTI and Birla MFs were in the next three slots. However, AUMs of 13 fund houses, including big players ICICI Prudential and UTI MF, are not available as yet.
In terms of monthly AUM growth, while LIC MF showed a 30 per cent rise to Rs 18,732 crore, IDFC MF recorded a 29 per cent jump to Rs 11,427 crore. A spokesperson for IDFC said that the fund house's prudent debt fund investment strategy, renewed focus on equity and performance-oriented approach have brought about this rise in AUM.
Other asset management companies that registered a growth of over 10 per cent in AUM were IDFC, DWS Investments, Tata, Principal, ICICI Prudential and Kotak Mahindra.
Among the laggards, new entrant Edelweiss MF witnessed a 59 per cent drop in AUM to Rs 32 crore, while Bharti AXA MF's total assets fell 25 per cent to Rs 210 crore.
"From the preliminary AUM figures available, it seems only liquid schemes have seen an inflow which has boosted the assets of few fund houses, while the rest continue to suffer in the volatile market conditions," said one analyst.