Individual investors have increased their assets base by 32 per cent over the last nine months of the current fiscal year (2014-15) to Rs 5.24 lakh crore.

“Individual investors held Rs 5.24 lakh crore in mutual funds as of December 2014, an increase of 31.68 per cent over March 2014,” according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI).

These individuals’ assets have mainly come from the top 15 locations and are primarily distributor driven.

“About 72 per cent of the assets of individual investors are from top 15 cities, brought in by distributors,” AMFI said.

Together, all 45 mutual fund houses manage assets worth over Rs 11 lakh crore.

Industry insiders said the key contributing factors for increase in individual investors’ asset base was an uptick in sentiments and expectations of an investor-friendly and reforms-oriented government delivering on policy changes.

Most of the money was pumped in equity oriented schemes, which was supported by a sharp rally in stock markets.

The growth in assets base is in line with the BSE’s benchmark Sensex surging by 23 per cent in the first nine months of the current financial year.

Moreover, there are about 4.03 crore investor accounts, or folios, of which 99 per cent is accounted by individual investors.

Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts though one investor can have multiple folios.

Of 4.03 crore folios, retail investors accounted for 3.86 crore folios, followed by HNI accounts (13.22 lakh) and institutional investors (3.34 lakh).

Assets managed by the Indian mutual fund industry have grown from Rs 9.02 lakh crore in March last year to Rs 11.34 lakh crore in December 2014.

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