Mutual Fund folio count rises to record 4.92 crore in July

Showing a growing traction for mutual funds among investors, the number of folios has grown by nearly 16 lakh in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal to a record 4.92 crore, primarily on account of participation from retail investors.

This follows an addition of 59 lakh folios or investors' accounts in the preceding financial year (2015-16) and 22 lakh in 2014-15. Folios are numbers designated for individual investor accounts though one investor can have multiple accounts. According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data on investor accounts with 42 fund houses, the number of folios jumped to 4,92,37,194 at the end of July from 4,76,63,024 at the end of last fiscal, a gain of 15.74 lakh.

Growing participation from retail investors and huge inflows in equity schemes have helped in increasing the folio counts, experts said. "The growth is seen mostly in debt and liquid folios while equity folios has grown by two per cent. The debt segment has done well in recent past and is further expected to do well in the future too," Quantum MF Head (Customer Delight) Harshad Chetanwala said.

The equity folios climbed by 8 lakh to 3.68 crore, while investor accounts for debt-oriented schemes surged by 5.8 lakh to 8.9 crore, during the period under review. Mutual Funds have reported net inflows of over Rs 1.92 lakh crore in schemes in the first four months (April-July period) of the current fiscal. The inflow is in line with BSE's benchmark Sensex surging 3.7 per cent during the period under review. The latest inflow has pushed the assets under management (AUM) of equity mutual fund to a record high of Rs 15.2 lakh crore at the end of July from Rs 13.81 lakh crore in June-end. Mutual Funds are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others.