Equity mutual funds attracted an all-time high net inflow of Rs 28,463 crore in March on continued interest by retail and HNI investors, who used market correction as a good buying opportunity.
The net infusion, which also marks the 13th straight month of net inflow, indicates the underlying bullishness among investors despite record outflow by foreign funds.
This was significantly higher than the net inflow of Rs 19,705 crore in February,
Rs 14,888 crore in January and Rs 25,077 crore in December 2021, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Friday.
With this, during FY 2021-22, the equity-oriented categories received a robust net inflow of Rs 164,399 crore, compared to the net outflow of Rs 25,966 crore during the FY 2020-21.
Akhil Chaturvedi, chief business officer, Motilal Oswal AMC, attributed the latest monthly inflow to the continued interest by retail and HNI investors to make use of market opportunities and enter in corrections for better valuations.
“Ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis has kept the market volatile, giving advantage to investors in making higher allocations or re-balance their existing allocations. All said, risk-appetite for equities is certainly on rise which is very healthy for markets and investors for long-term wealth creation,” he added.
Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar India, said that geopolitical tension due to the raging war between Russia and Ukraine and concerns over the surging crude prices triggered a sharp correction in the market towards the end of February and early March. This provided investors a good entry point into equities.
Going ahead, Amfi CEO N. S Venkatesh said Sebi’s ban on launch of new fund offer (NFO) will not affect inflows in equity schemes. “We don’t see any tapering, because the economy is doing well,” he added.
Equity oriented categories have been witnessing consistent net inflows since March 2021, after the second wave of Covid hit India and resulted in the correction in the markets.
Prior to this, such schemes had consistently witnessed outflows for eight months from July 2020 to February 2021 losing Rs 46,791 crore.
