Thanks to the robust collection through new fund offers and steady market rally, the average asset under management of the country’s largest fund house, SBI Mutual Fund, jumped 11 per cent in the September quarter to ₹10.99 lakh crore, up from ₹9.88 lakh crore in the June quarter.

In fact, SBI MF is the only fund house to have crossed the ₹10 lakh crore AUM mark, and its asset were 30 per cent and 45 per cent higher than those of second and third placed ICICI MF and HDFC MF at ₹8.41 lakh crore (₹7.47 lakh crore) and ₹7.59 lakh crore (₹6.71 lakh crore), respectively.

The SBI Innovative Opportunities Fund, launched in August, currently has an AUM of ₹8,174 crore. The benchmark Sensex has rallied 7 per cent to 84,300 points in September against 79,033 points in June.

The industry’s AUM jumped 12 per cent to ₹66.22 lakh crore in the September quarter, against ₹58.96 lakh crore logged in the June quarter.

Hitesh Thakkar, acting CEO of ITI Mutual Fund, said the domestic investment story is very encouraging, and investors are now able to understand that short-term volatility in the market is part of the long-term wealth creation journey.

This is one of the reasons for the sharp increase in financial assets within which MF share is rising gradually, he added.

Two fund houses -- Franklin Templeton MF and Canara Robeco MF – have crossed the ₹1 lakh crore AUM-mark. Of the 40 fund houses in operation, 16 had AUM of over ₹1 lakh crore as of September end and they command a cumulative AUM of ₹59.51 lakh crore, accounting for 90 per cent of the industry’s AUM.

The funds raised through NFO in the September quarter increased 67 per cent to ₹44,955 crore compared to ₹26,899 crore logged in the June quarter. The number of NFOs launched increased to 60 against 35 in the June quarter.

Given the buoyancy in the market, the equity NFOs alone mopped up a whopping ₹34,675 crore last quarter, up from ₹25,152 crore in the previous quarter.

Harish V, CEO of Smart Wealth Creators, a regional MF distributor, said the acceptance of mutual funds as a vehicle for investment in the equity market through SIP is more pronounced in smaller cities after a very positive experience in the last three years.

However, he added that the recent crash in stock market may impact the sentiments of first-time investors who have not seen their asset value go down sharply.

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