The cash holdings, in absolute terms, have decreased by 569 crore on a monthly basis in January.
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On the basis of monthly change, Samco Mutual Fund increased its cash as a percentage of AUM to 24.5% from 18.94% registering a growth of 556 basis points. Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund and Quant Mutual Fund increased their cash allocation by 514 basis points and 192 basis points, respectively. The fund house had an allocation of 11.95% and 8.9%, respectively, in January.
Axis Mutual Fund increased the cash holding by 92 basis points to 8.61% in January against 7.69% in December. SBI Mutual Fund, the largest fund house based on assets managed, increased the cash allocation by 39 basis points. Mirae Asset Mutual Fund increased the cash allocation by 21 basis points.
Around five fund houses had over Rs 10,000 crore cash in their portfolio in January. SBI Mutual Fund had around Rs 33,626 crore cash in its portfolio in the mentioned month, which was 5% of the total AUM.
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund had Rs 23,808 crore and Rs 22,191 crore cash, respectively, in their portfolios. PPFAS Mutual Fund had around Rs 18,277 crore cash in the portfolio, followed by Axis Mutual Fund, which had Rs 16,002 crore in the portfolio in the same time period.
Around six fund houses had less than Rs 100 crore cash in their portfolios in January. NJ Mutual Fund had Rs 13.92 crore cash in its portfolio, which was 0.63% of the total AUM.
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Based on the percentage terms, Samco Mutual Fund had the highest cash allocation as a percentage of AUM, which was 24.50%, followed by PPFAS Mutual Fund whose cash allocation was 19.39% of the total AUM.
The cash allocation as a percentage of total AUM was lowest by NJ Mutual Fund at 0.63%.
SBI Mutual Fund had the highest equity AUM of Rs 6.39 lakh crore in January, followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund which had an equity AUM of Rs 3.80 lakh crore in the same period. Shriram Mutual Fund had the lowest equity AUM of Rs 344 crore in the period.
Fund managers are allowed to keep a part of their portfolios in cash to meet events like redemptions or make investments when they see a possible opportunity in the market.