Infrastructure funds top investors' priority list
Bangalore: Infrastructure funds are emerging as the preferred funds for mutual fund (MF) investors, with 10 such schemes making it to the list of top 50 equity funds in terms of asset growth in August. "Infrastructure story is not just the flavor of the season, it will remain an attractive investment theme for a much longer time," said Sundeep Sikka, CEO of Reliance Mutual Fund to Financial Chronicle.
ICICI Prudential Infrastructure leads the list of funds focused on infrastructure, with an asset under management (AUM) growth of seven percent and a total collection of 
277 crore. Others in the list of toppers include Reliance Natural Resources Retail that has an AUM of six percent and a collection of 253.13 crore and Sundaram BNP Paribas Energy Opportunities Fund with a total collection of 145.18 crore at AUM growth of 8.5 percent. Other schemes in the list included Reliance Diversified Power Sector Retail, HDFC Infrastructure, UTI Infrastructure Advantage - Series I, Tata Infrastructure, SBI Infrastructure Fund Series 1, Tata Indo Global Infrastructure and UTI Infrastructure.
The infrastructure funds are followed by the tax-savings funds in the priority list of the investors. Among tax-saving funds, Magnum Taxgain collected the highest amount of 256 crore with a six percent rise in AUM during the month followed by HDFC Taxsaver collection of 119 crore and growth of 7.5 percent, Sundaram BNP Paribas Taxsaver with Rs 108 crore and 11 percent growth and Reliance Tax Saver with 80 crore and four percent AUM growth.
While asset growth of a fund shows the level of investor interest in it, industry analysts say this alone cannot be the criterion to gauge the popularity of a scheme in absence of data on the number of retail investors. Also, asset growth figure of a fund scheme often gets distorted because of high redemption in a particular month.
277 crore. Others in the list of toppers include Reliance Natural Resources Retail that has an AUM of six percent and a collection of 253.13 crore and Sundaram BNP Paribas Energy Opportunities Fund with a total collection of 145.18 crore at AUM growth of 8.5 percent. Other schemes in the list included Reliance Diversified Power Sector Retail, HDFC Infrastructure, UTI Infrastructure Advantage - Series I, Tata Infrastructure, SBI Infrastructure Fund Series 1, Tata Indo Global Infrastructure and UTI Infrastructure.
The infrastructure funds are followed by the tax-savings funds in the priority list of the investors. Among tax-saving funds, Magnum Taxgain collected the highest amount of 256 crore with a six percent rise in AUM during the month followed by HDFC Taxsaver collection of 119 crore and growth of 7.5 percent, Sundaram BNP Paribas Taxsaver with Rs 108 crore and 11 percent growth and Reliance Tax Saver with 80 crore and four percent AUM growth.
While asset growth of a fund shows the level of investor interest in it, industry analysts say this alone cannot be the criterion to gauge the popularity of a scheme in absence of data on the number of retail investors. Also, asset growth figure of a fund scheme often gets distorted because of high redemption in a particular month.