For mutual funds, November told a tale of two extremes. For regular inflows into Mumbai’s money-management industry, it was the best of times: For equity funds, it was among the worst — at least in recent memory.
Inflows into equity schemes hit a 41-month low of ₹1,312 crore, but monthly collections through SIPs hit an all-time high of ₹8,273 crore. And these coincided with the two biggest equity indices hitting records.
In October, equity mutual fund schemes had seen inflows of ₹6,026 crore. Inflows stood at ₹6,609 crore in September and ₹9,152 crore in August.
This is the twelfth successive month in a row where SIP inflows remained north of the ₹8,000-crore mark.
During the month, assets under management of the Indian mutual fund industry surged by ₹54,419 crore to touch a high of ₹26.94 lakh crore, aided primarily by inflows of ₹51,427 crore into debt mutual fund schemes.
Balanced funds that invest 65-75% of their money into equities also saw huge outflows of ₹4,932 crore.
Among debt funds, banking and PSU funds that primarily invest in a portfolio of AAA companies saw strong inflows of ₹7,230 crore, higher than the previous month’s ₹4,855 crore. Investors continued to shun credit risk funds with the category seeing outflows of ₹1,898 crore.
Overnight funds saw inflows of ₹20,649 crore as some corporate investors moved from liquid funds that now have an exit load for seven days.
Arbitrage funds, which invest in a mix of shares and stock futures, continued to see inflows of ₹5,353 crore as rich investors looking for cheaper valuations in equities parked surplus funds here.
