Equity mutual fund inflows hit four-month high in January on strong SIP flows
2 min read . Updated: 09 Feb 2023, 05:12 PM IST
Premium- Meanwhile, foreign selling in equities hit a seven-month high of $3.51 billion in January 2023
Backed by buoyant SIP or Systematic Investment Plan flows, equity mutual funds have soared nearly 72% to ₹12,546 crore in January, making it the highest net infusion in four months, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Thursday.
Despite volatility in stock markets, the inflows in January was way higher than ₹7,303 crore inflow seen in December, ₹2,258 crore in November and ₹9,390 crore in October, 2022. Prior to that, equity MFs witnessed flow to the tune of ₹14,100 crore back in September last year.
The broader indexes, NSE Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sensex fell more than 2% each last month.
This was also the 23rd straight month of inflows into equity-oriented mutual fund schemes, data with the AMFI showed.
"Despite the volatility in stock markets, investors continue to repose faith in equity mutual funds, as evidenced by the ₹12,546 crore of net inflows in January, a 72 per cent rise on month-on-month basis," said Gopal Kavalireddi, Head of Research, FYERS.
Meanwhile, foreign selling in equities hit a seven-month high of $3.51 billion last month. The rise in inflows in January offset some of the pressure on the markets, which witnessed heavy selling by foreign investors. Foreign portfolio Investors (FPIs) remained net sellers for the month.
On SIP contribution
According to the data, contributions to SIPs – in which investors made regular payments into a mutual fund – rose the sixth consecutive month to a record ₹13,856 crore in January from ₹13,573 crore in December. This was the fourth consecutive month when SIP flows remained above the ₹13,000-crore mark.
Total number of SIP accounts stood at 6,21,62,694 for the month of January, with a net addition of 9, 20,163 from the month of December 2022, which was at 6,12,42,531. Also, new SIPs registered for the month of January were more than 22 lakh.
The rising SIP contributions have acted as a cushion to markets, amid persistent FPI outflows, said NS Venkatesh, chief executive officer of AMFI.
SIP contributions hit ₹1.5 lakh crore in the last 12 months, much higher than the foreign outflows of ₹1.17 lakh crore.
The MF industry, overall, has recorded net inflows of ₹11,373 crore last month, way higher from ₹4,491 crore seen in the previous month.
Meanwhile, the mutual fund industry Assets Under Management (AUM) was marginally down to ₹39.62 lakh crore in January-end from ₹39.89 lakh crore in December-end. Of this, equity AUM stood at ₹15.06 lakh crore and debt AUM at ₹12.38 lakh crore.
Gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) came in at ₹21,835 crore in the month of January.
