MF Assets up 20 per cent

S. Vaidya Nathan

THE assets under management by mutual funds, have risen by around 20 per cent in the course of 1999-2000 to Rs. 11,3005 crores, at the end of March.

This is according to the March monthly report of the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), a body which represents the mutual funds in the country. Some of the interesting trends evident are:

In March, the total sales by mutual funds was Rs. 11,623 crores with seven new schemes accounting for Rs. 1,481 crores. The redemptions were at Rs. 10,382 crores and net inflows, Rs. 1,241 crores.

Only funds with an FII linkage had net inflows during the month. All the others -- UTI, bank and institutional sponsored funds and private sector funds, without a FII linkage, saw net outflows during the month. The net inflows for funds with FII linkage was Rs. 240 crores.

Significantly, the redemptions from growth funds were to the tune of Rs. 3,600 crores accounting for around 35 per cent of all redemptions. The high level may be due to the fiscal year-end considerations and the hot monies that chased funds, in search of dividend.

As far as 1999-2000 as a whole is concerned, sales during the year was Rs. 5,9739 crores and redemptions, Rs. 4,1204 crores.

The private sector funds had a 22. 16 per cent share (Rs. 2,5046 crores) in the assets under management, at the end of March 1999.

The UTI had assets amounting to Rs. 7,6547 crores and bank/institution sponsored funds, Rs. 1,1412 crores under management.

The share of UTI in the assets under management, has dropped to 67.73 per cent from levels in excess of 75 per cent, in the earlier years.

The total assets of income-schemes accounted for 42.48 per cent of the assets under management (Rs. 4,8004 crores), growth schemes for 29.78 per cent (Rs. 3,3647 crores), balanced funds for 23.68 per cent (Rs. 2,6757 crores) and money market mutual funds/gilt funds/liquid funds for 4. 36 per cent (Rs. 3,068 crores).

The total number of schemes was 344. This was accounted for by 175 open-ended funds, 128 close-ended funds and 41 assured return funds.

Morgan Stanley Dividend: Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 7.50 per cent (75 paise per unit) for Morgan Stanley Growth Fund. The record date for the purpose of dividend is April 29, 2000.

Sundaram Tax Dividend: Sundaram Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 100 per cent dividend for its tax savings scheme, Sundaram Tax Saver'97 scheme. The fund has fixed April 20, 2000 as the record date for this purpose. The NAV was Rs.23.54 per unit on April 11, 2000. The fund has posted an annualised return of around 33 per cent since its launch.Alliance Capital Mutual Fund has declared a dividend of Rs. 1.10 per unit or 11.0 per cent on the face value of Rs. 10 in its Monthly Dividend Plan and a dividend of Rs. 1.31 per unit or 13.1 per cent on the face value of Rs. 10 in its Quarterly Dividend Plan of the Alliance Monthly Income Plan Fund. The monthly dividend is for the period March 1 to March 31, and the quarterly dividend is for the period January 1 to March. Since the scheme's launch on July 14, the total dividend payout for the financial year ending March 31, has been 18.5 per cent in the Monthly Dividend Plan and 18.7 per cent in the Quarterly Dividend Plan.

Sundaram Balanced Fund: Sundaram Newton Asset Management Co. has announced plans to launch a balanced fund. The scheme will in equity and debt instruments of companies and governments. The new fund, Sundaram Balanced Fund is to be launched on April 26, 2000. Under normal circumstances, the fund would invest 55 per cent of its corpus in equities and the rest in debt. This would make the fund eligible for the exemption from payment of dividend tax.

Alliance Record Date: Alliance Capital Mutual Fund has fixed May 5, 2000 as the record date for dividend under Alliance Tax Relief'96. All purchases made till 3.30 pm on that day would be eligible for dividend. The NAV at the end of May 6, 2000 will be reduced by the amount of dividend.

ING Savings Trust: ING has extended the offer closing date for its open-end balanced scheme, ING Balanced Portfolio to April 25, 2000. The offer was to have closed a week earlier. The units of the scheme will be available on an ongoing basis from May 12,2000

Jardine Fleming India Fund: Jardine Fleming India Fund, Inc., a closed-ended, non-diversified management investment company seeking capital appreciation, by investing primarily in equity securities of Indian companies, has announced its investment results for the quarter ended February 29. The fund had assets of $243.57 millions (February 29: $93.79 millions), a rise of 159 per cent. But the number of shares outstanding has declined from 11.31 millions to 10.42 millions, a decline of 7.87 per cent. The NAV was $23.37 per share ($8.30). The scheme trades at a discount of around 29 per cent to the NAV. As of the reporting date, the fund has 111.2 per cent in equities with a 11.2 per cent leverage.

Top ten holdings: Infosys, Satyam Computers, Hindustan Lever, Zee Telefilms, Satyam Infoway (ADR), Himachal Futuristic, MTNL, Global Tele-Systems, Sterlite and Reliance Industries. (Bold Font Ends). The top holdings accounted for 56.30 per cent of net assets. The Fund's investment adviser is Jardine Fleming International Management Inc.

LIC G-Sec Fund: LIC Mutual Fund's gilt scheme, LIC G-Sec Fund has a corpus of Rs. 78 crores and in the four and half months since its launch, generated an annual return of 18. 8 per cent. The fund invests in Central Government securities.

US-64 Prices: The sale price of UTI's Unit Scheme-64 is Rs. 14.75 per unit and the repurchase price is Rs. 14. 45 per unit. These prices are applicable for April 2000.