The Hindu Business Line : It’s flat Sept for asset management firms

Mumbai, Oct. 2 Assets under management by mutual funds have remained flat for September, despite the BSE Sensex rising by over 13 per cent during the month.

Preliminary figures put out by the Association of Mutual Funds of India show assets under management of 28 funds for September at Rs 4,39,905 crore (figures from four funds including Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund were not available yet).

Assets under management in August by these same 28 mutual funds amounted to Rs 4,32,377 crore.

“Although the market was up, the money market conditions were easy and that is the reason that some of the money has found other avenues such as deposits,” said Mr Jaideep Bhattacharya, Chief Marketing Officer, UTI Mutual Fund.

Other industry officials pointed out that the September pattern was cyclical in nature. “Low growth is mainly registered by the liquid fund category because it is nearing the half-year corporate results season when banks would redeem their funds,” said the chief investment officer with a leading asset management company.

“Entities have to go in for advance tax as the half-year ends,” added the national sales head with another leading mutual fund.

A lot of profit booking was happening too, he said. “People prefer to revisit the markets after there are some corrections. We find this particularly true of high networth individuals and informed investors.”

Funds with a relatively smaller corpus registered a sharp rise. AIG Global Investment Group Mutual Fund doubled its asset size, from Rs 1,143 crore in August to Rs 2,289 crore in September. JP Morgan too, nearly doubled its asset size from Rs 950 crore to Rs 1,868 crore.

In contrast, larger players such as Franklin Templeton and Reliance have struggled to sustain growth. Reliance Mutual Fund grew its AUM by 4.21 per cent, to Rs 70,440 crore. Franklin Templeton grew by 1.63 per cent, to Rs 30,481 crore.

UTI Mutual Fund was an exception among the large funds, growing by nearly 8 per cent, to Rs 45,000 crore. “Our Fixed Maturity Plans have done well as there was a large appetite from corporates as well as retail investors,” said Mr Bhattacharya of UTI Mutual Fund. “Inflows under systematic investment plans have increased. People from the Nathu La pass to the Andamans are investing,” he said.

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