The just-ended December quarter has been a strong one for the Indian mutual funds industry, which seems to have shrugged off demonetisation blues and also tackled global headwinds, if one goes by the 5.13 per cent sequential growth in aggregate average assets under management (AUM) of the 43 mutual fund houses.
In October-December 2016, the MFs added ₹82,610 crore in AUM, taking the overall tally to ₹16.93 lakh crore by December-end, the latest data showed.
While ICICI Prudential MF continued to hold the pole position among fund houses, Reliance MF outperformed others during the quarter under review adding the highest AUM of ₹12,717 crore.
Besides I-Pru and Reliance MF, the other fund houses in the top five ranking (in terms of aggregate AUM) are HDFC MF, Birla Sun Life and SBI MF.
Commenting on the December quarter performance, Sundeep Sikka, Executive Director & CEO, Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management, said: “We firmly believe that capital markets, MFs, and debt instruments will be the biggest beneficiaries of demonetisation that has resulted in more and more money coming into the banking system and we expect this growth momentum to continue in the next few quarters as well.”
Sikka said MFs recorded sequential growth during the past three months, which witnessed some major announcements — both domestically and globally.
On annual basis, the aggregate AUM of the industry recorded a 28.67 per cent increase to touch ₹16.93 lakh crore, as of December-end 2016, from ₹13.16 lakh crore as on December 31, 2015.