Mutual Funds Buy Shares Worth Rs 3,300 Crore in June

An improved market sentiment helped mutual funds pick up shares to the tune of over Rs 3,300 crore in June, marking the second straight monthly inflow.

Besides, they pumped in a staggering Rs 68,000 crore in the debt market during the period.

Inflows in equities during June followed a net investment of about Rs 105 crore in the preceding month.

Prior to that, fund houses have been net sellers in the equity market since September last year, while they were net buyers of shares to the tune of Rs 1,607 crore in August.

Mutual funds purchased shares worth a net amount of Rs 3,339 crore in the month of June, the latest data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed.

Industry experts attributed the inflows in equities to improvement in market sentiments primarily due to the new government's reforms agenda. Besides, retail participation in equity schemes has increased significantly in the last few months.

"The money in equities has been coming in the past two months and mostly in the second half of May after the General election results," an expert said.

The buying of shares during June coincided with a rise of 1,196 points, or 5 per cent, in the Sensex.

Mutual funds collect money from investors and buy stocks, including IPOs (primary market) and bonds.

In the first half of 2014, mutual funds offloaded shares worth over a net Rs 7,000 crore, while they pumped in a staggering Rs 3.75 lakh crore in the debt market during the period.

Mutual funds offloaded shares worth Rs 14,208 crore during the last fiscal year, lower than the Rs 22,749 crore offloaded in the preceding financial year (2012-13).

The financial year ended March 31, 2014 also marked the fifth consecutive year of net outflows by mutual funds in the equities after pumping in a net amount of Rs 6,985 crore in the share market in 2008-09.