Mutual funds come out of woods, AUM up 16% in April: Crisil

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The mutual fund industry posted a nearly 16 per cent growth in its average assets under management (AUM) at Rs 6.8 trillion in April on the back of higher inflows to the money market funds, a Crisil Research report has said.

The industry had AUM of Rs 5.87 trillion in March. The rise in AUM was mainly due to inflows of around Rs 75,700 crore into liquid funds, comprising around 82 percent of the total inflows.

"Historical trend shows that quarter-end outflows in the category are reversed in the subsequent month (March witnessed outflows while April saw inflows) as corporates re-invest their surplus funds that were withdrawn to pay advance tax," the report said, adding that total assets in liquid funds rose to Rs 1.6 trillion in April, against Rs 80,350 crore in March.

Similarly, income funds also witnessed inflows for the first time in the last six months. "Income funds (including ultra short-term debt funds), which saw outflows for the last five consecutive months witnessed inflows of Rs 179,00 crore (highest in the last one year) in April," the report said adding that AUM in this category rose by 6.5 per cent to Rs 3.09 trillion in April.

The report also said that gold ETFs assets crossed Rs 1 trillion mark in April. However, equity funds witnessed a fall in AUM during this period.

"Equity funds' AUM fell by 1.4 percent or Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 1.8 trillion on the backdrop of outflows of over Rs 600 crore as well as due to market to market losses."

The report also noted that more fixed maturity plans had been launched in April in the new fund offer (NFO) space.

"Fixed maturity plans (FMPs) continued to garner majority of the new fund offers (NFOs) in the month. As many as 33 FMPs were launched in the month, garnering Rs 4,400 crore compared to just one NFO (in other sectors), which garnered around Rs 40 crore," the report said.