The mutual fund industry added 6.12 lakh investor accounts in May, taking the total tally to 9.1 crores, amid volatile market conditions and concerns over the impact of coronavirus pandemic. In comparison, the industry had added 6.82 lakh new folios in April.
Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts. An investor can have multiple folios.
According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India, the number of folios with 44 fund houses rose to 9,10,41,392 at the end of May, from 9,04,28,589 at the end of April, registering a gain of 6.12 lakh folios.
The total folio count stood at 8.97 crore in March, 8.88 crore in February and 8.85 crore in January.
Market experts said the addition of folios suggests that investors were undeterred by the market volatility. Besides, it indicates their understanding of the market risks associated in the mutual fund schemes.
The number of folios under the equity and equity-linked saving schemes rose by 3.22 lakh to 6.53 crore at May-end as compared to 6.49 crore at the end of the preceding month.
The debt oriented schemes folios count went up by more than 30,600 to 71 lakh. Within the debt category, liquid funds continued to top the chart in terms of number of folios at over 19 lakh, followed by low duration fund at 9.3 lakh.
Overall, mutual fund schemes witnessed an inflow of over Rs 70,800 crore last month, much higher than Rs 46,000 crore infusion in April.
Of the total inflow, fixed-income securities or debt mutual funds saw an inflow of Rs 63,665 crore on robust investment in liquid schemes and measures taken by RBI and equity mutual funds witnessed a net inflow of around Rs 5,256 crore.
The inflow has pushed the asset base of the MF industry, comprising 44 players to Rs 24.55 lakh crore at May-end from Rs 23.93 lakh crore at end-April.
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