NET OUTFLOW FROM EQUITY MFS SLOWED DOWN IN JANUARY

MUMBAI: Equity mutual funds (MFS) continued to face redemption pressures for the seventh straight month in January, as investors rushed to book profits with the Sensex touching the 50,000-mark for the first time.

Net outflow from equity mutual funds was ₹12,194.18 crore in January, slightly below December’s record ₹13,121 crore, showed data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on Tuesday.

In January 2020, these schemes had received a net inflow of ₹7,547.78 crore.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIS) have been steadily selling stocks from the middle of 2020.

At an aggregate level, DIIS were net sellers of ₹11,970.54 crore in January, lower than the mutual fund net outflow during the month.

This indicates that DIIS such as insurance companies, banks, financial institutions and pension funds were marginal net buyers in January.

“The continuation of net outflows from equity funds could be attributed to profit booking/portfolio rebalancing as markets continue to touch new highs,” said Himanshu Srivastava, associate director and manager, research, Morningstar India.

“In fact, the net outflow number would have been higher had it not been for the new fund offers (NFO) in the sectoral or thematic fund category, which collected ₹4,185 crore,” said Srivastava.

In January, most equity fund categories saw net outflows except multi-caps, sector or thematic funds and dividend yield funds.

Amfi data showed that during January, 16 multi-cap funds were re-categorised as flexi-cap funds. The large-cap category was one of the most affected in January with a net outflow of ₹2,853.43 crore, against an outflow of ₹3,876.39 crore in the previous month.

According to D.P. Singh, chief business officer, SBI Mutual Fund, the outflow trend in equity schemes is likely to reverse from hereon as retail and institutional investors will rebalance their portfolios as the fiscal year draws to a close.

“It is typically seen that retail inflow into equity schemes increase towards the end of the fiscal year as investors adjust their portfolio, taking the benefit of tax-saving schemes. We expect inflows into equity schemes to increase here on,” he said.