BENGALURU: Mutual fund industry’s average assets under management (AAUMs) crossed 14 lakh crore label—a record high ever—in April-June quarter, says a report. Despite intense volatility in the equity markets in June, investors continued to invest in equity mutual funds, said industry participants. The prime reason for this uncertain hike is due to the buoyant inflows in equity and short-maturity debt funds, which lifted the average AUM of Indian mutual funds to a new record (Research by CRISIL).

Data from the AFMI (Association of Mutual funds in India) has revealed that the total AAUMs of the mutual fund industry for the Jan-Mar quarter was Rs 13.53 lakh crore, while the total AAUMs of 44 fund houses stood at Rs 14.91 lakh crore in the April-June quarter, up by 6.47 per cent or Rs 87,583 crore.

Short-maturity debt funds logged strong gains, assets swell by Rs 10,005 crore to a new high of Rs 1.60 lakh crore, way above Rs 1,525 crore of growth observed in the preceding quarter. Within same category, ultra short-term fund assets rose from Rs 13,997 crore to Rs 1.47 lakh crore, AFMI added.

Average AUM of direct plans also rose up to 8.06 per cent or Rs 399.08 billion—a new high of Rs 5.35 trillion. The share of direct plans inched up marginally to 37.12 per cent from 36.57 per cent the preceding quarter, in overall AUM.

Where top ten funds saw their assets rise in the range of 1-12%, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund rested its pole position in terms of assets, with a gain of 9.90 per cent; from Rs 174 billion, to Rs 1.93 trillion. HDFC Mutual Fund sits a close second and Reliance Mutual Fund maintained its third position with 1.92 trillion and Rs 1.67 trillion, respectively.

Of the 42 fund houses, 31 has logged growth and the share of the top five and top ten rose to 57 per cent and 81 per cent, respectively.

Gold exchange traded funds shined for the second consecutive quarter as the prices of yellow metal gained. Gold ETF assets rose over 8 per cent, gained 1.04%, or Rs 0.66 billion, to Rs 64.01 billion, as represented by the CRISIL Gold Index.

Milind Barve, MD at HDFC AMC, said, “I think industry has been able to reach here is due to continuous participation from retail investors. We have seen sustain flows from retail investors through systematic investment plan (SIPs) in the past few years.”

Assets of industry heavyweights-ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund (in provided order), rose the highest in absolute terms, AMFI said.

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