Mutual Fund Investment: Equity mutual fund schemes received an investment of Rs 34,419 crore during September, which is a decline of 10 percent compared to August. This is the lowest investment in equity schemes after April. The investment in April was Rs 18,917 crore. The mutual fund body said that the decline has been recorded on a monthly level due to a big drop in investment in sector-based funds and funds of large companies.

Data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) shows that September 2024 has been the 43rd consecutive month of net inflows into equity funds. Along with this, the contribution to mutual fund schemes through the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) rose to an all-time high of Rs 24,509 crore in September. It was Rs 23,547 crore in August. AMFI Chief Executive Venkat Chalasani said that the increase in investment from SIP shows that investors are now preferring wealth creation by investing in a disciplined manner.

Withdrawals higher in September

The mutual fund industry saw investments of Rs 1.08 lakh crore in August while withdrawals of Rs 71,114 crore were seen in September. This was due to massive withdrawals of Rs 1.14 lakh crore from bond schemes. Despite these huge withdrawals, the net assets under management of the mutual fund industry rose to Rs 67 lakh crore last month from Rs 66.7 lakh crore at the end of August.

According to the data, equity-oriented schemes saw investments of Rs 34,419 crore last month, the lowest since April. The inflow was much lower than Rs 38,239 crore in August and Rs 37,113 crore in July. Equity schemes had received investments of Rs 40,608 crore and Rs 34,697 crore in June and May, respectively.

Status of equity schemes

Within equity schemes, sector-based funds attracted investors with the highest net inflows of Rs 13,255 crore in the month under review. However, the inflows were lower than Rs 18,117 crore in August. Apart from this, inflows in funds linked to large companies also declined from Rs 2,637 crore to Rs 1,769 crore. Melvin Santarita, analyst and research manager at Morningstar Research India, said that the highest number of schemes were launched in the index fund category 13 which raised a total of Rs 3,656 crore. This was followed by sector-based funds, in which four new schemes were launched and Rs 7,842 crore was raised during the month.