MF's AUM TOUCH Rs. 9.45 LAKHS IN APRIL

Assets under management (AUM) of mutual funds witnessed a 14.6 per cent rise to touch a record Rs 9.45 lakh crore in April on the back of a spurt in inflows into liquid funds, rating agency Crisil said today. Assets under equity funds gained for the third consecutive month, tracking the uptick in the equity indices, it added. "The mutual fund industry's AUM rose to a record Rs 9.45 lakh crore, up 14.6 per cent...The spurt in the AUM, which is the largest absolute gain in the last one year, was primarily due to inflows into liquid funds," the rating agency said. As per the agency, liquid funds attracted inflows of Rs 1.24 lakh crore, which is the biggest in three years, as corporates and banks ploughed the surplus money back into the funds that were withdrawn in March due to advance tax payout and fiscal end requirement. The liquid funds' assets rose 94.6 per cent to touch Rs 2.59 lakh crore by April-end. However, income funds registered outflows, with assets under this category touching Rs 4.58 trillion, mainly due to outflows from close-ended and interval funds. Gilt funds saw outflow for the fifth consecutive month with AUM falling to Rs 5,895 crore in April. Meanwhile, investors continued to exit gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) for the 11th straight month with consolidated outflows amounting to Rs 2,400 crore till April. "For the latest month, assets of gold ETFs fell by 1.7 per cent to Rs 8,527 crore amid outflows of Rs 146 crore in April. Of late, the popularity of the category has waned due to a subdued performance by the underlying assets," it said. However, equity fund AUM gained for the third month in a row with April witnessing a gain of 0.6 per cent or Rs 1,139 crore to Rs 1.92 lakh crore. "The gains were led primarily by mark to market gains in the broad market," it said. Similarly, other ETFs and global fund of funds report outflows during the month. "Other ETFs saw record outflows of Rs 1,213 crore and assets declined 18.20 per cent to Rs 3,700 crore in April," the rating agency said. Fund of funds investing overseas too saw outflows with the category's AUM fell by 0.2 per cent to stand at Rs 3,186 crore as of April.