Top five funds that doubled investor wealth in last 1 year; top 10 stock bets

NEW DELHI: Retail investors, who have largely stayed away from the Indian markets after the 2008 financial crisis, are finally finding their way into the equity markets, but this time via the mutual fund route, say experts.

There’s no denying the fact that the Indian markets are largely dominated by foreign flows, but retail investors too are catching up. They are finally buying the India story, and if the trend continues, they will lead the next leg of the rally.

This is evident from the fact that the country’s 45 fund houses together now have an average assets under management (AUM) of Rs 12.02 lakh crore at February-end this year as against Rs 8.25 lakh crore as on March 31, 2014, registering a gain of 45.69 percent, PTI reported.

In the equity schemes, there have been a net inflows of Rs 64,000 crore during the current financial year 2014-15 (April-February) compared to an outflow of Rs 6,000 crore during the preceding fiscal, added the report.

"On the domestic front, I see retail investors coming back into the market. I see healthy flows with domestic institutional investors (DIIs) pumping money into equities. We have seen good uptake and offtake of our products and improved sales numbers as well," says Ritu Gangrade Arora, CIO, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Co Ltd.

"I can say this on behalf of both insurance and mutual fund industries. In terms of FII flows, they are fickle. As of now, there is no reason to worry, as we continue to see healthy flows and India may continue to find favor from foreign institutional investors (FIIs)," he adds.

We have collated a list of top five mutual funds ranked on the basis of 1 year return, which have almost doubled investors’ wealth in the last one year.




FII ownership continues to rise for the quarter ended Dec-14 and has reached 23.4 per cent for the BSE 500 stocks. MFs are fast catching up and will be strong enough to counter any withdrawal by FIIs, which have traditionally dominated the market, say experts.

"FII ownership in the Indian equity markets is close to all-time highs. But domestic MFs ownership is up 50bps in CY14 to 4%," CLSA said in a note.

"On the other hand, retail individuals' direct stock ownership remains largely flat, indicating that the households are 'investing' rather than speculating on 'stock tips'," added the report.

Here is a list of top 10 stocks where top five mutual funds are allocating their funds: