Mutual funds increase cash holdings by Rs 87 crore to Rs 1.83 lakh crore in September, cash allocation rises to nearly 4%

Mutual funds have increased their cash allocation by nearly Rs 87 crore on a monthly basis to Rs 1.83 lakh crore in September compared to Rs 1.82 lakh crore in August, according to monthly data by ACE MF.

The monthly data further showed that cash holding as a percentage of total assets was recorded at 3.98% in September against 3.80% in August and the equity AUM was at Rs 45.83 lakh crore in the same period.

There were nearly 51 asset management companies (AMCs), of which six fund houses had over Rs 10,000 crore cash in their respective portfolios while 24 AMCs had over Rs 1,000 crore cash in their portfolios.


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SBI Mutual Fund, the largest fund house based on the assets managed, was holding the highest amount of cash in its portfolio. The fund house had Rs 22,543 crore cash in its portfolio which was 2.98% of the total AUM. The fund house had an equity AUM of Rs 7.34 lakh crore in the said time period.

HDFC Mutual Fund and PPFAS Mutual Fund had Rs 21,968 crore and Rs 21,680 crore cash respectively in its portfolio in the month of September.

PPFAS Mutual Fund in its monthly factsheet said that, “We continue to look at individual investments on their own merits and will not hesitate to invest if an opportunity looks attractive. As usual, our investment stance does not depend much on the macro-economic situation but is focussed on individual companies. We have about 9.77% in cash holdings, debt & money market instruments and arbitrage positions which can be deployed in long term investments at appropriate levels.”

Note, this is the first month where the cash holding as a percentage of total assets by PPFAS Mutual Fund fell below 10%, according to the monthly cash holding data.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund had Rs 15,962 crore cash in its portfolio which was 2.90% of the total AUM. Quant Mutual Fund had Rs 15,048 crore cash in its September portfolio. This was followed by Axis Mutual Fund who had Rs 12,820 crore cash in its portfolio.

Kotak Mutual Fund had nearly Rs 5,987 crore cash in its portfolio. This cash allocation was 2.21% of the total AUM. Nippon India Mutual Fund had Rs 4,987 crore cash in its September portfolio.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and Canara Robeco Mutual Fund had Rs 3,203 crore and Rs 3,094 crore cash respectively. Radhika Gupta led Edelweiss Mutual Fund had Rs 1,451 crore cash.

Sunil Singhania led Abakkus Mutual Fund had nearly Rs 763 crore cash in its portfolio which was 6.59% of the total AUM. Helios Mutual Fund had Rs 239 crore cash in its portfolio. JioBlackRock Mutual Fund had nearly Rs 47.71 crore cash in its portfolio.

AlphaGrep Mutual Fund which is a new entrant in the mutual fund industry had Rs 14.91 crore cash, followed by Shriram Mutual Fund who had Rs 7.93 crore cash in its portfolio.

Based on the percentage terms to total AUM, AlphaGrep Mutual Fund had the highest cash allocation of 18.54% to the total AUM. This was followed by Samco Mutual Fund whose cash allocation was 17.08% of the total AUM.

The next two were Quant Mutual Fund and PPFAS Mutual Fund whose cash allocation to total AUM was 16.49% and 14.33% respectively in September. Choice Mutual Fund had the lowest cash allocation to total AUM of 0.08%.

Equity AUM

SBI Mutual Fund had the highest equity AUM of Rs 7.34 lakh crore in September, followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund who had Rs 5.35 lakh crore equity AUM. Choice Mutual Fund had the lowest equity AUM of Rs 34.32 crore.

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SIFs cash holding trend

The data for 13 SIFs was available in ACE MF and out of which QSIF by Qant Mutual Fund had the highest cash allocation of Rs 694 crore, followed by iSIF by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund who had Rs 669 crore cash in its portfolio.

Magnum SIF by SBI Mutual Fund had Rs 472 crore cash. WSIF by The Wealth Company Mutual Fund had the lowest cash holding of Rs 10.96 crore.

APEX SIF by Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund had the highest cash allocation as a percentage of total AUM of 50.73% whereas Sapphire SIF by Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund had the lowest cash allocation as a percentage of total AUM of around 6.25%.

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