MF Update: MF industry adds 12.64 lakh folios during the month

With the increasing awareness and penetration, the MF industry is witnessing a huge elevation in its AUM as well as folios. The number of folios has grown by over 12 lakh in just one month to reach an all-time high of 7.35 crore at the end of May 2018.

Folios are the unique numbers given to individual investor accounts, an investor can have multiple accounts.

According to the data from Association of Mutual Funds in India, the number of folios rose to 7,34,50,338 at the end of May 2018 a record this year, from 7,21,85,970 at the end of April 2018, a gain of 12.64 lakh, these figures are for the total investor accounts held with 42 fund houses in India.

Investor accounts have been growing with the robust contribution from retail investors, specifically from smaller towns, and massive inflows in equity schemes over the past few years. Investor accounts in equity, equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS) grew by 11 lakh to 5.43 crore. Also, the inflows into the debt funds have increased 2.85 lakh which represents 3 per cent growth in the inflows.

The folios into the balanced funds, ETF’s, Gold ETF’s, liquid funds and Gilt funds have witnessed a decline. Whereas the fund of fund investments has witnessed an increase in the number of folios by 8,293 which represent a 9 per cent growth on MoM basis.

The rising inflows into the equity schemes suggest a sense of fear in the market, wherein investors see the opportunity in the equity schemes as a safer bet and many experts believe that the investment into the equity will rise in the coming years as well.