June sees new highs for MF industry: equity MF inflows at Rs 40,000 cr, SIPs at Rs 21,000 cr

Investors pumped in a record Rs 40,608 crore into equity mutual funds in June, 17 per cent higher than in May 2024, industry body Amfi said on Tuesday.

The flows into the systematic investment plans (SIPs) also reached a new high at Rs 21,262 crore for the month, which was higher than the previous high of Rs 20,904 crore recorded in May, it said.

The net assets under management (AUM) for the entire MF industry on equity schemes stood at Rs 27.67 lakh crore, while the same from SIPs was Rs 12.43 lakh crore, the body said.

A total of 55 lakh new SIPs were registered in June, taking the total number to 8.98 crore, he said, adding that 32.35 lakh matured or were shut down.

Amfi chief executive Venkat Chalasani, however, did not answer a question on the net SIP investments after accounting for the outflows.

The overall AUM of the MF industry stood at over Rs 61.15 lakh crore as of June, which was higher by about 4 per cent when compared with May.

"After two successive months of higher inflows, the mutual fund industry witnessed net outflows to the tune of Rs 43,637 crore for the first time since the beginning of this financial year," domestic rating agency Icra's head market data Ashwini Kumar said.

Courtesy the record inflows into the segment, the equity AUM grew to Rs 27.67 lakh crore at the end of June, as per data shared by the body.

Chalasani said there was an outflow of Rs 1.07 lakh crore in debt schemes due to advance tax redemptions, which took the overall AUM in the segment down to 14.13 lakh crore as on June 30.

The net inflows into large cap schemes grew to Rs 970 crore, which was higher than the Rs 663 crore in May, but continued to trail small and midcap schemes that witnessed an inflow of Rs 2,263 crore and Rs 2,527 crore, respectively, even as concerns were raised about valuations.

On the continued interest among investors in MFs despite the high valuations, Chalasani said there is a need to take a longer-term view and added that the valuations are "reasonable".

The high interest among the investors in the market is due to the stable returns which have been delivered and also the confidence in the market, he said.

The growth in sector and thematic funds was the highest at 13.16 per cent, to take the overall AUM to Rs 3.83 lakh crore, Chalasani said, attributing the jump primarily to the launch of new fund offerings by asset management companies.

Among other schemes, the hybrid segment saw inflows of Rs 8,854 crore, taking the overall AUM to Rs 8.09 lakh crore.

Passive schemes surpassed the Rs 10 lakh crore of AUM mark, on the back of the rally in gold prices that helped the gold exchange traded fund holdings and also inflows of Rs 14,601 crore, Chalasani said.

The Amfi CEO declined comment on issues surrounding Quant Mutual Fund, and added that the industry body has not written any communication to the house.