Small MFs Surpass Bigger Players

New Delhi: It's not only the big names that are expanding upon investors growing preference for mutual funds, as the industry minnows have outpaced even the country's top five players in terms of growth in assets. While the collective assets of fund houses in the country exceeded the Rs 3.5 lakh crore mark, adding over Rs 24,000 crore in April, the show was stolen by players such as Lotus India Mutual Fund, Taurus, ING Vysya and ABN Amro, which recorded a 20-80 per cent growth in their wealth during the month. In comparison, the top five fund houses, including Reliance, ICICI Prudential and Franklin Templeton recorded less than 12 per cent rise in their assets under management (AUMs).
Smaller mutual funds had unveiled a slew of NFOs (new fund offerings) during the first month of the current financial year, which led to a huge surge in their AUM. The market leader Reliance MF retained its position as the largest fund house with a growth of 5.44 per cent, while its closest rival ICICI Prudential clocked a 11.6 per cent jump in assets. Among the other top five players, Franklin Templeton and HDFC MFs gained 11.31 and 11 per cent respectively. In comparison, the public sector giant UTI MF's AUM fell by Rs 66 crore (0.2 per cent) in the month, while those of LIC MF, Tata MF, Birla MF and DSP Merrill Lynch dropped by 2-6 per cent.

The collective AUM of all the 30 fund houses surged to a record high of Rs 3,50,441 crore at the end of April, breaching the Rs 3.5 lakh crore level for the first time. The total assets of the fund houses have primarily swelled based on debt and fixed maturity plans and few equity schemes too. The combined AUM of the fund houses rose by over Rs 24,017 crore during the month to a total of Rs 3,50,441 crore in April as against Rs 3,26,425 crore in March. Reliance MF's AUM swelled to Rs 48,828 crore in April, gaining Rs 2,521 crore from Rs 46,307 crore in March, ICICI Prudential MF maintained its second position by growing to Rs 42,268 crore.