Mutual fund SIP account additions hit a record in August

Investors continued to increase exposure through the systematic investment planning (SIP) route in August amid the sustained momentum in the stock market. New SIP account registration hit a record 24.9 lakh in the month, showed the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). The number of registrations in August was nearly 2.5 times the long-term average. This is the third month in a row when new SIP registrations were more than 20 lakh, taking the total tally of SIP accounts to 4.3 crore.

Total net addition of the SIP accounts in the past 12 months is about one crore, forming nearly 25% of the total SIP accounts. New account opening-to-closure ratio was 2.6 in August and remained above two times in each of the past six months. The average ticket size of the SIP investors dropped to ₹2,294 in August 2021 from ₹2,355 a year ago due to the rising contribution of new accounts from the fintech platform where average SIP investment is around ₹500.

Total SIP assets under management (AUM) rose to a record ₹5.3 lakh crore in August. It contributed 14.4% to the industry AUM — well above the long-term average contribution of 10.5%. Mutual funds reported cumulative inflows of ₹1 lakh crore in the past 12 months, driving retail AUM to Rs 17.2 lakh crore, or 47% of total industry AUM. The average portfolio value of SIP investors rose to ₹1,21,839 in August compared with ₹1,14,653 at the beginning of the year.