The number of women investors holding mutual fund investments for less than a year decreased from 40.5% to 25.4% between 2019 and 2024. For male investors, this short-term holding percentage declined from 42.1% to 27%. This data indicates a stronger inclination among women to maintain their investments over longer periods compared to men.
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Women investors’ AUM in mutual funds in India more than doubled from Rs 4.59 lakh crore in March 2019 to Rs 11.25 lakh crore in March 2024. Women investors constitute a substantial proportion of individual investors’ total AUM, with women contributing approximately Rs 33 of every Rs 100 invested in MFs.
The study highlighted that the average investor folio size across different individual investor types has exhibited a notable trend over the last five years, with women investors demonstrating a significant increase in their investment ticket size.
Women’s average folio size grew a substantial 23% from a base value of 100 in March 2019 to 123 in March 2024. In contrast, men’s average folio size expanded a modest 5% from 100 in March 2019 to 105 in March 2024.
As of March 2024, women accounted for one in every four MF investors, underscoring the growing trend of women’s empowerment in financial decision-making. This can be attributed, in part, to the initiatives and awareness programmes led by the AMFI, which have successfully created financial awareness and empowered women to become informed investors, the study said.
The national women participation rate in mutual funds is 25.1% in terms of unique investors and 33.2% in terms of women investors’ AUM as a percentage of total individual investors’ AUM.
Although women investors in T30 cities continued to dominate the AUM share (74.8% in March 2024), women investors in B30 cities increased their share significantly from 20.1% in March 2019 to 25.2% in March 2024. This uptrend underscores the growing penetration of MFs among women in smaller cities.
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The share of equity AUM in women’s overall AUM increased substantially from 43.3% in March 2019 to 63.7% in March 2024. This uptrend suggests a growing affinity among women investors for equity as an investment avenue.
In terms of investment preferences within equity, women’s allocation to large-cap funds decreased approximately 6%, from 19.2% of their total equity AUM in March 2019 to 13.3% in March 2024. Conversely, women’s equity AUM parked in small-cap funds increased from 6.2% in March 2019 to 10.2% in March 2024, suggesting that women are seeking to capitalise on the growth potential of smaller companies
Women’s allocation to passive investment strategies surged from 2.5% in March 2019 to 4.1% in March 2024. Women investors’ AUM constituted 5.2% of the individuals’ total passive gold AUM in March 2019 which has increased 4 times to 24.9% in March 2024 indicating a strengthening commitment to passive investing and increasing preference for the electronic modes of investing in gold.
Women participation in debt funds declined consistently from 22.6% of women’s total AUM in March 2019 to 10.7% in March 2024. This trend is visible across all age groups of women.
Women’s SIP AUM accounted for over 30.5% of the total SIP AUM in March 2024. It grew 319.3% between March 2019 and March 2024, suggesting that women are increasingly adopting SIPs as a disciplined investment approach.
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