AUM Of MF’s Go Up By 7.4 Per Cent

The industry closed April 2007 with Rs 3.50 lakh crore of assets under management (AUM). This was higher than what fund houses managed in March 2007: Rs 3.26 lakh crore, registering a rise of 7.4% in April 2007 over March 2007. AUM fund of funds (FoFs) were Rs 2203 crore.
Reliance Mutual Fund continued its run for largest fund house for April 2007 month also followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. Reliance Mutual Fund emerged as the country's largest fund house, displacing Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund from its first position end March 2007. Reliance Mutual Fund topped the charts with Rs 48828.03 crore AUM - a rise of 5.4% over March 2007. This is clearly more than what ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund managed: Rs 42267.85 crore in April 2007 (a rise of 11.6% over March 2007). Reliance Mutual Fund registered net purchases of Rs 2521.26 crore in April 2007 over March 2007.

The other toppers also registered a rise in its AUM in April 2007 compared with February 2007. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund AUM increased by 11.6%, 0.1% and 11.0%, respectively, in April 2007. Occupying the third and fourth slots were UTI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund, which had AUM of Rs 35517.01 crore and Rs 31485.16 crore respectively. UTI Mutual Fund maintained its third position from the previous month. It had the highest AUM in December 2006. HDFC Mutual Fund also maintained its third position from the previous month.

However, the other toppers registered a decline in AUM in March 2007 compared with February 2007. AUM Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual fund and HDFC Mutual Fund slipped 12.5%, 8.1% and 8.8%, respectively, in March 2007. Occupying the third and fourth slots were UTI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund, which had AUM of Rs 35488.25 crore and Rs 28357.99 crore, respectively. UTI Mutual Fund maintained its third position from the previous month. It had the highest AUM in December 2006. HDFC Mutual Fund also maintained its position from the previous month.

The prominent mutual funds, besides the top four, in April 2007 include Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (Rs 24510.0 crore), Birla Sun Life (Rs 18615.79 crore), and SBI Mutual Fund (Rs 18338.62 crore). Besides Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund, almost all the major funds showed a rise in AUM in April 2007 compared with March 2007.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund recorded the highest inflow of Rs 4398.27 crore in April 2007, while HDFC mutual Fund, Reliance Mutual Fund, and Franklin Templeton Mutual registered an inflow of Rs 3127.17 crore, Rs 2521.26 crore and Rs 2491.20 crore, respectively. SBI Mutual Funds, Standard Chartered Mutual Fund and Kotak Mutual Fund also witnessed substantial inflow of more than Rs 1000 crore. Fidelity Mutual Fund's AUM increased by Rs 720.40 crore to Rs 6533.90 crore in April 2007.

Among the smaller players in the industry are Quantum Mutual Fund (Rs 57.39 crore), Escorts Mutual Fund (Rs 123.37 crore), BOB Mutual Fund (Rs 92.07 crore), Sahara Mutual Fund (Rs 177.67 crore) and Lotus India Mutual Fund (Rs 2086.79 crore). Some of the other fund houses, each with less than Rs 5000 crore AUM, are Canbank Mutual Fund, DBS Chola Mutual Fund, ING Vysya and Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund. StanChart Mutual Fund closed April 2007 with Rs 13976.36 crore -higher than Rs 11548.48 crore it had in end-March 2007.

Out of the 30 mutual funds, 24 registered a rise in the AUM in April 2007 over March 2007. The top three funds witnessing a rise in the AUM included Lotus India Mutual Fund (78.1%), Taurus Mutual Fund (28.7%) and ABN AMRO Mutual Fund (25.8%).

In terms of percentage fall, LIC Mutual Fund clocked the first position with a decrease of 6.3% in its AUM in April 2007 compared with March 2007, followed by Quantum Mutual Fund, registering a decrease of 5.0% in its AUM in this period.