Mutual fund assets reach a new high: CRISIL FundServices

The mutual fund industry's assets under management (AUM) reached a new peak of Rs.7.2 trillion.at the end of July 2009, crossing the Rs7-trillion mark for the first time.

This translates into a healthy growth of 24 per cent over the previous month. Both debt and equity categories saw fresh inflows on the back of positive returns across categories except in the gilt segment.

''Income and liquid funds saw strong inflows in July, with banks again parking money in mutual funds after withdrawals in June end to meet quarter end capital adequacy related requirements," said said Krishnan Sitaraman, Director - CRISIL Fund Services. "The positive market momentum saw continued interest in equity funds,'' Sitaraman added.

Equity markets saw positive movement with the S&P CNX Nifty giving 8 per cent returns in July aided by an upward movement in global market and better-than-expected corporate earnings.

Rising FII inflows helped provide good liquidity to the equity markets as they bought secondary market equities worth Rs116 billion in July compared to Rs32 billion in June.

The rally during the month was also broad based with midcap and small cap indices gaining 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. Mutual funds saw the second highest net inflows of 2009 in July at Rs1.2 trillion, after the highest in April 2009 at Rs1.5 trillion.