Retail investors’ inflow to mutual funds spiked 40% in the past one year, AMFI data shows

Investment in mutual funds has really caught up with retail investors in the past one year. This is clearly evident from the latest data released by the Association of Mutual funds in India (AMFI) for the month of February.

The value of assets held by individual investors in mutual funds rose 40 percent to ₹32.87 lakh crore in Feb 2024 vis-à-vis ₹23.44 lakh crore in Feb 2023, the AMFI data reveals.

At the same time, the value of institutional assets rose from ₹17.25 lakh crore in Feb 2023 to ₹21.66 lakh core in Feb 2024, reflecting a jump of 25.54 per cent.

Additionally, the latest data shows that the assets managed by the Indian mutual fund industry has jumped from ₹40.69 trillion in Feb 2023 to ₹54.52 trillion in Feb 2024, showing 34 per cent increase in assets in the past one year.

Allocation to equity

Another interesting trend that has come to the fore is that individual investors primarily hold equity-oriented schemes while institutional investors hold liquid, debt-oriented schemes and ETFs/ FOFs.

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This is clear from the Feb 2024 data which reveals that 84 per cent of individual investor assets are held in equity-oriented schemes, 11 percent of retail investors' assets are held in debt, 3 percent in liquid schemes and only 2 percent in ETFs/ FOFs.

On the contrary, 55 percent of assets owned by institutions are held in liquid/ money market schemes and debt-oriented schemes.

Another way to look at the statistics is from the perspective of assets rather than from the investors.

For example, while 84 percent of individual assets are invested in equity but when seen from the lens of total equity assets, 88 percent of the equity assets have got their money from individual investors (retail and high net-worth individuals- HNIs).

A year ago i.e., in Feb 2023, the corresponding allocation was 89 percent.

And no wonder then the proportion of assets held by individual investors has risen from 57.6 percent in Feb 2023 to 60.3 percent in Feb 2024.