PTI

New Delhi: Amid volatility in stock markets, country’s fund houses witnessed a nearly seven per cent decline in assets in November, while UTI Mutual Fund has bucked the trend to become the third biggest fund in terms of assets under management, replacing ICICI Prudential.

The average assets under management (AUM) of the country’s oldest fund house --UTI MF-- has increased about Rs74 crore and stood at Rs8,358.14 crore at November-end.

“We have been able to increase our AUM in such an uncertain time mainly because of investors’ interest in fixed income product and rust factor,” UTI Mutual Fund Chief Marketing Officer Jaideep Bhattacharya told PTI.

“We expect out positioning to improve further. In addition to this, the market share of ours is expected to be in double digits in days to come,” he said. At present, the market share of the fund house stands at 9.54% against 8.86% last month.

UTI MF has raised about Rs300 crore from the New Fund Offer last month. The money raised from UTI Wealth Builder Fund would be reflected in the AUM figure of the next month.

On other hand, the combined average AUM of the 35 fund houses in the country saw an erosion of over Rs29,831 crore and dropped to Rs4,02,030 crore for the period under study.

Last month, the average AUM had been at Rs4,31,901.42 crore, dropping below the Rs5 trillion-mark for the first time this year, according to the data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India.

Top fund house Reliance MF suffered a sharp decline of Rs3,278 crore or 4.61% in its AUM, which fell below Rs70,000 crore. Its average AUM stood at Rs67,816 crore, down from Rs71,094 crore at the end of October.