Business Desk mumbai

Net inflows into mutual funds’ (MFs) equity schemes dropped by nearly 19% to Rs 24,690 crore in October, making it the third consecutive month of a decline in the number, the Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) said on Tuesday.

On SIPs, the preferred vehicle of retail investors, the overall inflows grew to Rs 29,529 crore from September’s record high of Rs 29,631 crore. Amfi CEO V N Chalasani said that there is no pattern in the investor interest and attributed the fall to higher redemptions because of the profit-booking amid surge in markets, PTI reported. Amid the rally in gold prices, gold exchange traded funds saw net inflows at Rs 7,743 crore during the month taking the overall AUM in the category to above Rs 1 lakh crore.

The net flows into equity MFs had declined 9 per cent on-month to Rs 30,421 crore in September, after August’s 22% decline to Rs 33,430 crore, amid corrections in the equity benchmarks. The overall redemptions stood at Rs 38,920 crore in October as against Rs 35,982 crore in September. However, the funds mobilised by equity schemes declined in October to Rs 63,611 crore from Rs 66,404 crore in September. The AUM for the equity schemes stood at Rs 35.16 lakh crore as on October 31 as against Rs 33.68 lakh crore in the month-ago period. 

As per previous experience, the beginning of a new quarter saw higher interest in the debt schemes, with net inflows of Rs 1.59 lakh crore in October as against an outflow of Rs 1.01 lakh crore in September.

Gold ETFs continue to attract investor interest 

On the gold ETFs front, the net inflows reduced to Rs 7,743 crore in October from Rs 8,363 crore in September, and the AUM stood at Rs 1.02 lakh crore. Amfi attributed the continued investor interest in the precious metal to the price increase in the spot prices and also its value as a safe haven asset.