Equity MF schemes net Rs 1,300 cr in Jan

NEW DELHI: Equity mutual funds witnessed inflows for the first time in five months, as investors put in Rs 1,300 crore into the scheme buoyed by new offers.

"Equity fund inflows in January were mainly on account of new fund offers and equity linked saving schemes (ELSS), as investors invested in tax planning avenues in the last quarter of the fiscal," CRISIL FundServices said here on Tuesday.

The equity fund schemes have witnessed net outflows of about Rs 8,000 crore since last August, when the ban on entry loads by SEBI came into operations.

Last year, market watchdog SEBI had asked MFs not to deduct marketing and distribution charges from the investment made by subscribers.

Among the other schemes, income funds saw the highest net inflows of Rs 1,00,000 crore, while there have been outflows from liquid and gilt funds categories of Rs 10,200 crore and Rs 260 crore respectively, CRISIL FundServices said.

"The entire amount redeemed by banks in December did not flow back into mutual funds in January as credit growth picked up. Going forward, on full implementation of the 0.75 per cent CRR hike, bank exposure in MFs may see a slow return to a level lower than those seen in early December," CRISIL FundServices director Krishnan Sitaraman said.

The country's mutual fund industry witnessed a decline of 4.13 per cent in its average assets under management to Rs 7.61 lakh crore in January.