Net inflows dwindled by Rs. 48,850 Cr in May 11; Equity shows a net inflow after a lull

The lull in Equity in the month of May 11 didn’t deter Mutual Fund investors from investing in Equity Mutual Funds which showed an inflow after a brief lull. The broader indices Sensex and Nifty 50 which nosedived by 3.30 per cent approximately affected the diversified Equity AUM too which lost 1.72 per cent to Rs. 1,67,470 crore in May 2011 vis-à-vis Rs. 1,70,406 crore in April 2011. However, there has been a net inflow of Rs. 1,546 crore in Equity category in May 2011, much to the reprieve of Mutual Fund Industry which has been witnessing outflows continuously except for few occasions since the ban of entry loads in Aug 2009. In debt and other categories, net outflows were reported. The recent regulation of RBI to cap the banks’ investment in Mutual Fund up to 10 per cent of total banks’ net worth as on Mar 31 has started affecting the Liquid/Money Market category which saw an outflow of Rs. 39,603 crore in May 2011. Moreover, the Income category also reported an outflow of Rs. 11,141 crore. As on May 20, 2011, the banks’ net investment in Mutual Funds stood at Rs. 106,233 crore. It is estimated that the total net worth of the banking system stands at Rs. 3.13 which essentially means that the current investment of Rs. 1.06 lakh crore will drop to Rs. 30,000 – 35,000 crore in next six months which may impact the net flows in Income/Liquid categories.

Net Outflows in May 2011

In totality, the MF Industry AUM dropped by Rs. 53,926 crore or 6.87 per cent to Rs. 7.31 lakh crore in May 2011 from Rs. 7.85 lakh crore in Apr 2011. The categories which saw major fall are Other ETFs (-25.09 per cent), Liquid/Money Market Instruments (-17.43 per cent), Income Funds (-3.39 per cent), ELSS (-2.86 per cent), Gilt (-2.37 per cent) and Equity (-1.72 per cent). However, Gold ETF and FOF Investing Overseas lapped the AUM with a gain of 13.81 per cent and 10.83 per cent respectively. The trends of gold price continue to head for a bull run which prompts investors to invest in Gold ETFs. The table below shows the comparative flows and AUM of all major categories of Mutual Fund industry.

FMPs still rule the inflows

Perhaps FMP (Close ended Income Fund) is the only category which has been showing continuous inflows. In May 2011, there were 37 NFOs which collected a total of Rs. 7,416 crore. The burgeoning interest rates and tight liquidity in the financial system seem to remain in place; moreover, it is more likely that RBI may go for additional policy rate hike in upcoming mid-quarter review as on June 16, 2011.

New Funds enter into industry

Apart from FMPs, there were four open ended Funds in Income, Equity and Gold ETF category. While ICICI Prudential MIP 5 collected a total AUM of Rs. 27 crore, Sundaram Equity Plus garnered Rs. 134 crore in their NFOs. First of its kind, HSBC Brazil Fund collected a total amount of Rs. 313 crore in May 2011.

Unique Investors

For the first time, AMFI declared the unique investors data which clearly shows that Equity investors rule the industry. There are a total of 3.77 crore unique investors out of which 2.43 crore (65 per cent) investors belong to Equity, 72.65 lakh (19 per cent) to ELSS, 30 lakh (8 per cent) to Income, 22.29 lakh (6 per cent) to Balanced and remaining to other categories. In Gold ETFs, there are 3.87 lakh unique investors.

MF Industry saw a dip of Rs. 1.53 lakh cr; Equity also saw outflows

Indian Mutual Fund industry suffered a major jolt at the concluding month of fiscal year 2009-10. The Asset Under Management (AUM) for the month of March stands at Rs. 6,13,979 crore, a loss of Rs. 1,52,890 crore or 19.94 per cent over its last month figures. The industry saw a net outflow of Rs. 1,52,890 crore against a gain of Rs. 6,365 in the month of Feb. The Income category saw a maximum outflow of Rs. 1,64,487 crore or a loss of 34.57 per cent. Last month, this category had seen a net inflow of Rs. 4,887 crore. However, the Liquid/Money Market category has shown an improvement over its last month figures. The current month saw a net inflow of Rs. 3,971 crore. In Income Fund category, there have been net outflow as the banks have redeemed their investments from Mutual Funds following strict directives from RBI and SEBI. The major surge in Mutual Fund Industry AUM has been happening due to increased participation from banks. They have been keeping their surplus money with Mutual Funds as the credit off-take has been slow following the bleak economic. However, in the month of March, banks have reduced their Mutual Fund positions from Rs. 1,09,453 crore as on Feb 26, 2010 to Rs. 55,502 crore as on Mar 2010. In March 2009, the banks have total investments of Rs. 36,781 crore in instruments issued by Mutual Funds. Last year in Dec 2009, RBI issued a directive to all banks after banks increased their total investments in Mutual Funds to Rs. 1,69,236 crore. RBI argued that the money invested in Mutual Funds have been revolving in the system in the form of Certificate of Deposits (CDs) which banks have been placing with Mutual Funds. The category added three new income fund schemes. JP Morgan India Short Term Income Fund and Sundaram BNP Paribas Monthly Income Plan – Conservative & Aggressive were new schemes added.


On the other front, the Equity category AUM rose to Rs. 1,74,054 crore in Mar 2010 in comparison to Rs. 1,68,672 crore recorded last month, up by 3.19 per cent. However, in terms of total flows, it saw a net outflow of Rs. 2,016 crore. In the month of March, Fund Managers booked profits seeing stretched valuations of stock market. Moreover, they also distributed dividends rampantly. SEBI also banned the dividend distribution out of Unit Premium Reserve (UPR). It said that the dividend distribution amount must be from the profits booked by the scheme. Since the ban of entry loads, equity category has seen a constant outflow of its assets. However, the first two months of 2010 had seen some inflows. In fiscal year 2009-10, the equity category has seen a net inflow of Rs. 595 crore only. However, the overall Mutual Fund AUM has grown 47.13 per cent in FY 2009-10. Bharti AXA Focussed Infrastructure collected Rs. 41 crore from its NFO.

The ELSS category saw its maximum inflow in last 15 months. The category added Rs. 641 crore to its kitty. The inflows had been mainly due to tax-season month where investors put their money in ELSS to get tax rebate under Sec 80C of Income Tax Act 1961. It saw a total inflow of Rs. 1,554 crore in last one year.

The ETF category saw some major outflows in other ETFs category. While Gold ETF added Rs. 45 crore to its kitty, other ETFs category saw an outflow of Rs. 439 crore. Current the total AUM stands Rs. 957 crore, a loss of 28.69 per cent over its last month figures. Two ETFs were added to the category. Religare Gold ETF garnered Rs. 19 crore in its NFO period while Hang Seng Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme added Rs. 55 crore from its NFO. Hang Seng ETF is the first international ETF being launched in India by Benchmark Mutual Fund.

Gilts saw a net inflow of Rs. 267 crore. Its AUM rose to Rs. 3,395 crore in the month of March 2010, a gain of 7.06 per cent over its last month figure. Given high borrowing programme, bond yields are poised to rise further. The category may saw some inflows in the months to come once the benchmark yield level reaches to 8.25 per cent to 8.5 per cent.

The industry also saw a herd of FMPs in the month of March 2010. A total of 69 schemes were launched which collectively garnered Rs. 14,642 crore. FMPs have seen a comeback after a brief lull. March sees the maximum numbers of new NFOs in FMP category as these products are launched mainly to avail the double indexation benefit, thus, minimizing the tax burden to investors on income earned.

Too many players, too many regulations…

India remained coupled with the ongoing global financial crisis albeit the extent of losses was small as compared to other nations where a lot of financial institutions collapsed. India, the favorite destination for foreign money witnessed an unusual concept ‘flight to safety’ which resulted in sharp depreciation of mutual funds’ assets under managements (AUMs). Some mutual funds defaulted in payments too but the timely action by SEBI along with RBI helped Indian mutual fund industry in achieving new heights in terms of AUM. Currently, the whole industry AUM stands at Rs 7.63 lakh crore with 38 pillars supporting the base. Many players entered the bandwagon witnessing the high growth rate year after year. SEBI announced a series of regulations in 2009 to protect the interests of investors and improve the liquidity conditions. SEBI started the year prohibiting the declaration of indicative portfolios and indicative yields in Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs) by mutual fund and its distributors. It also directed liquid fund schemes to purchase debt and money market securities with maturity of up to 91 days only effective from May 01, 2009. It also directed all mutual fund players to discontinue the nomenclature of ‘liquid plus schemes’ as it gives a wrong impression of added liquidity. The above regulations were directed by SEBI witnessing the serious liquid crisis in Oct 2008. Investment in Liquid Fund schemes with papers with maturity up to 91 days only has drastically reduced the returns from 7-8 per cent to 2.5-3 per cent compounded annually. This has resulted in mass redemption from liquid fund schemes.
In India, mutual fund investment is a push-strategy rather than a pull strategy as mutual fund distributors sell the products in lieu of high upfront commissions paid from investors’ investments. The SEBI announced the most awaited decision of the Indian mutual fund history where it directed the mutual fund houses to scrap all entry loads effective from Aug 01, 2009 and empowered the distributors and independent financial advisors (IFAs) to negotiate the commission for the services rendered. The retail investors welcomed the ruling while the distributors and IFAs opposed the decision as their earnings were at stake. Indian investors are not comfortable in writing another cheque for distributors. The above ruling created a stir in mutual fund inflows in equity category and the investment dropped drastically month after month. Some large mutual fund houses dig their profits to incentivize the distributors and IFAs while it became a question of survival for small mutual fund players. Fund houses reacted by increasing the exit loads which were also later regulated by SEBI putting a cap up to 1 per cent for all redemptions within one year and no exit loads beyond 1 year. To some extent, fund houses started pushing Portfolio Management Services (PMS) where it earns a fixed return in lieu of services rendered.
The cautious approach by SEBI in regulating Indian mutual fund industry and empowering the investors with improved investment conditions resulted in an increase in total assets under Indian Mutual Fund houses. However, the equity schemes continued to witness the lackluster in terms of investments.
Come to Nov 30, 2009. The retail investors have found another opportunity in terms of investments. Mutual funds units are now allowed to trade through registered brokers of recognized stock exchanges and NSE has already provided an online trading platform to all brokers. Thus, the need for enhancing the reach of mutual fund schemes to more towns and cities will be addressed through this channel. The existing secondary market set up in 1500 towns and cities will provide another opportunity to retail investors to invest in mutual funds. To some extent, the issue of holding multiple statements of accounts would be taken care and all the mutual fund units would be in dematerialized form.
But the question remains - are we ready to swallow too many regulations in such a short span of time? May be or may not be. SEBI could have been slow in introducing the exemption of entry loads in a phased manner so that it could give some time to IFAs to settle with their new business environments. As per ICRA Online report, the average maturity period for equity stands at 2-3 years much lower than its fundamental rule of 5-10 years. Equity has always been termed as a long term investment product but the recent ruling of allowing mutual fund units may result in increased churning of mutual fund investments. Moreover, the transaction charges as levied by brokers stands at 0.3-0.5 per cent for retail investors on either side trading, thus, making it 0.6-1 per cent on both side transactions. Apart from this, the brokers may charge an additional fee for recommending mutual fund scheme to investors. Thus, the whole concept of zero entry-load vanishes and moreover, the churning will also increase putting an extra onus in terms of increased fund management charges as portfolio turnover ratio will increase. Mutual fund houses will also benefit in terms of frequent exit loads being charged from investors.
No doubt, SEBI rulings will help retail investors with improved investment environment but it should also monitor the other anomalies as mentioned above. Investors must have some reasons to smile and become an informed and disciplined player.