equity mutual funds: Equity MF investments via SIP route scale new monthly peak

Mumbai: Retail investors continued to pour money into equity mutual funds through systematic investment plans (SIPs) and lump-sum allocations. Equity mutual funds, led by thematic funds, received ₹37,113 crore in July, as against ₹40,608 crore in June.

Flows through SIPs into mutual funds increased, touching a new monthly record of ₹23,332 crore compared to ₹21,262 crore in the previous month.

“A large number of savers are turning investors,” said DP Singh, deputy managing director, SBI Mutual Fund. “Many of them are coming into equity mutual funds through systematic investment plans, to meet their long-term goals.”

Debt funds too saw inflows of ₹1.20 lakh crore, largely from liquid and money market funds. Strong flows and an increase in stock market valuation took the total average assets under management of the industry to a new high of ₹64.71 lakh crore as against ₹61.33 lakh crore in June.

A large chunk of the flows into equity mutual funds in July was on account of the new fund offers (NFOs) of various sectoral and thematic funds. They pumped ₹18,385 crore into NFOs of thematic or sectoral schemes such as ICICI Prudential Energy Opportunities Fund, Edelweiss Business Cycle Fund, Kotak BSE PSU Index Fund, Motilal Oswal Nifty India Defence Index Fund and Tata Nifty India Tourism Index Fund.

Multicap funds, which invest in a mix of large, mid and small-cap funds, saw ₹7,084.61 crore inflows thanks to the NFO of Franklin Multi-Cap Fund. Flows in mid and small-cap funds moderated with these schemes raising ₹1,644 crore and ₹2,110 crore, respectively. In the previous month, midcap funds garnered ₹2,527 crore, while smallcaps got ₹2,263 crore more.Large and midcap schemes attracted ₹2,622 crore while large caps ₹670 crore. ELSS schemes continue to see outflows of ₹637 crore as investors booked profits after completing the mandatory lock-in period of 3 years and shifted to other equity categories. Debt-oriented schemes saw inflows of ₹1.10 lakh crore, primarily due to inflows of ₹70,061 crore in liquid funds and ₹28,738 crore in money market funds.

In the hybrid space, arbitrage funds, in which product investors have been using to park idle money, saw inflows of ₹11,015 crore. Multi asset allocation funds, which invest in a mix of debt, equity and gold, saw inflows of ₹3,126 crore. Balanced advantage funds saw inflows of ₹1,798 crore and equity savings funds saw inflows of ₹1,277 crore. Gold ETFs saw inflows of ₹1,337 crore as investors bought the yellow metal as a hedge against inflation.