Equity MFs see ₹9,115 crore inflow in March: Amfi data
NEW DELHI: After eight months of consecutive outflows, equity mutual funds (MFs) witnessed a net inflow of ₹9,115 crore in March amid correction in the stock market.
Barring multi-cap and value fund categories, all the equity schemes saw inflow last month, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed on Thursday.
However, investors pulled out ₹52,528 crore from debt MFs last month, after investing ₹1,735 crore in February, owing to advance tax payments and other year-ending commitments.
Overall, the MF industry witnessed a net outflow of ₹29,745 crore across all segments during the period under review, compared with a net inflow of ₹4,090 crore in February.
According to the data, net inflow in equity and equitylinked open-ended schemes was at ₹9,115 crore in March, compared with an outflow of ₹4,534 crore in February.
Prior to this inflow, equity schemes had been witnessing a net outflow since July 2020.
“Net flows were witnessed across equity fund categories in March.
“While it is too early to make any conclusions, it seems like equity investors waiting on the sidelines for a market correction, have started making allocations taking a long-term investing view on equities, as should be the case,” Morningstar India director (manager research) Kaustubh Belapurkar said.
Additionally, the quantum of redemptions was lower for the month, suggesting that profit booking and reallocation to other asset classes slowed down, he added.
Within the equity category, thematic funds, led by ESG (environmental, social and governance), received the highest inflow to the tune of ₹2,009 crore. It was followed by taxsaving ELSS funds that saw a net investment of ₹1,552 crore, mid-cap funds saw an inflow of ₹1,502 crore and flexi-cap funds witnessed a net buying of ₹1,386 crore.
“It seems that retail investors are getting used to the new valuations and are comfortable putting money back in equities,” Gautam Kalia, head (investment solutions) at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said.
“We saw an increase in flows to hybrid funds but clearly, now, many clients are moving back into equity funds. For obvious reasons, ELSS investments were high in March,” he added.
Also, SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) collection increased to ₹9,182 crore in March, from ₹7,528 crore in the preceding month. This is the highest SIP inflow ever, surpassing the previous tally of ₹8,641 crore seen in March 2020.