Reliance MF becomes largest private sector mutual fund

Reliance Mutual Fund has emerged as the largest private sector fund house in the country, as of March end, overtaking Prudential ICICI which has been holding that position for many years. Reliance MF more than doubled the assets under management over the last one year.

UTI MF remains the largest fund house in the country with more than Rs29,500 crore in assets under management, as of March 2006 end. Prudential ICICI, HDFC MF and Franklin Templeton complete the top five.

Fund	March 2006	March 2005
	Assets under management in Rs crore
UTI MF	29,519	20,740
Reliance MF	24,670	9,543
Prudential ICICI	23,502	15,201
HDFC MF	21,550	15,010
Franklin Templeton	17,827	15,354
Birla Sun Life	15,019	10,373
SBI MF	13,186	6,463
DSP Merrill Lynch	10,796	5,502
Tata MF	9,717	6,784
Standard Chartered	9,412	6,776
HSBC	9,220	6,247

Assets under management, excluding fund of funds, for the whole mutual fund industry increased to Rs231,358 crore, as of March 2006, from Rs149,266 crore, as of end March 2005.

The various fund of funds schemes had Rs10,118 crore under management as of March 2006, as compared to Rs4,555 crore a year before. Fund of fund schemes invest in schemes of other mutual funds.

All the major fund houses have seen significant growth in assets under management over the last one year. The stock market rally has encouraged more and more retail investors to consider mutual funds. The corporate sector, flush with cash in the economic boom, has also parked part of its surplus cash in mutual funds.

The Jan-March quarter saw many of the large fund houses launching a large number of new fund offers (NFO) to capitalise on the high investor interest in stock markets. Various fund houses are estimated to have collected nearly Rs15,000 crore in this period. Reliance Equity Fund collected a record Rs5,700 crore, making it the single largest mutual fund scheme in India.