Retail investor assets grew faster than institutional

The value of assets held by individual investors in mutual funds has increased by 14.48 per cent in the last one year. It has increased from Rs. 12.07 lakh crore in April 2018 to Rs. 13.82 lakh crore in April 2019. The value of institutional investor’s assets in the same period has increased by a mere 2.87 per cent. It has increased from Rs. 11.14 lakh crore in April 18 to Rs. 11.46 lakh crore in April 2019. Individual investors now hold a higher share of industry assets, i.e. 54.7 per cent in April 2019, compared with 52.0 per cent in April 2018.

The total assets managed by the Indian mutual fund industry are Rs. 25.28 trillion at the end of April 2019. That represents 8.91 per cent growth in assets over April 2018. Institutional investors account for 45.3 per cent of the assets, of which corporates are 91 per cent. The rest are Indian and foreign institutions and banks.

One of the reasons why the retail investor’s asset has increased is because of their larger presence in equity dedicated schemes, which has increased its share in total assets of the mutual fund. While the proportion of debt dedicated funds have declined wherein institutional investors hold a higher share. The proportionate share of debt-oriented schemes has come at 29.3 per cent of industry assets at the end of April 2019, down from 34.9 per cent in April 2018. What might also have impacted the debt-oriented schemes is the recent turmoil in various debt-related schemes that might have lowered the interest of investors towards debt schemes.