Mutual funds garner Rs 66,300 crore from investors in October

Investors pumped in more than Rs 66,300 crore in various mutual funds during October, the highest in six months. The huge fund inflow during the month followed a net withdrawal of Rs 33,910 crore in the preceding month.

As per the latest data available with market regulator Securities and Exchange Sebi, investors have pumped in a net amount of Rs 66,325 crore in October in various mutual fund (MF) schemes. This was the highest amount poured in by investors in a month since April, when they had put in Rs 1.06 lakh crore.

This takes MFs' net mobilisation of funds from investors so far in the current fiscal (April-October) year at about Rs 1.02 lakh crore.

Market participants said the buoyant stock market and a slew of reform measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have helped investors mobilise funds in the MF industry.

An MF is made up of pooling funds from many investors to be invested in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

At gross level, Mutual Funds mobilised Rs 9.81 lakh crore in October. They also witnessed redemptions worth Rs 9.15 lakh crore - resulting into a net inflow of Rs 66,325 crore.

This fund mobilisation has also helped the total AUM of mutual funds to grow to Rs 8.34 lakh crore as on October 31, 2013, from Rs 7.46 lakh crore in the previous month.

The huge inflow comes amid a surge of about 1,785 points, or 9.2 per cent, in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex during the month.

"During the financial year 2013-14 so far (April-October), mutual funds net mobilised Rs 1,01,668 crore as compared to Rs 1,48,595 crore mobilised in corresponding period of 2012-13," Sebi noted.

In the entire FY13, MFs had garnered Rs 76,539 crore from investors while a net amount of over Rs 22,000 crore moved out of the mutual funds' kitty during the preceding fiscal year.