Inflows into India’s equity mutual funds slumped in November as investors looked to book profits at a time when the benchmark Sensex and Nifty 50 indices hit a life high.
Equity funds saw inflows of just Rs 1,311.65 crore last month, compared with inflows of Rs 6,026.38 crore in October, down over 78 per cent.
However, sustained SIP (systematic investment plan) flows and inflows into debt funds drove the total assets under management of the mutual fund industry to an all-time high of Rs 27 lakh crore in November.
During the month, investors pumped in Rs 51,427.58 crore in various debt fund schemes, which was also sharply lower than the inflows of Rs 1.21 lakh crore the category saw in October. Among the debt funds, overnight funds saw inflows of Rs 20,649 crore, banking and PSU funds saw inflows of Rs 7,231 crore and liquid funds saw inflows of Rs 6,938 crore.
On the equity side, while large-cap funds saw inflows of Rs 1,197 crore, investors pulled out money from value/contra funds, sectoral funds and dividend yield funds. Investments into multi-cap funds also plunged to Rs 181 crore, versus Rs 1,312 crore in the previous month.
Net inflows into equity funds had come down sharply last month, partly due to investors booking profits, said N.S. Venkatesh, CEO, Association of Mutual Funds of India.
SIP investments have seen a steady rise over the last few years, and that trend continued in November.
“Goal-based, long term SIP investments from retail investors continue to grow steadily, with SIP AUM at an all-time high at Rs 3.12 lakh crore,” said Venkatesh.
This is the third straight month that inflows into equity mutual funds have declined. The benchmark Sensex has surged over 9 per cent since August to settle at 40,487.43 points on Monday. Analysts attribute much of this rally in the Sensex to demand in select large cap stocks like Reliance Industries, which recently became the first Indian company to cross the market capitalisation of Rs 10 lakh crore.