New Delhi: Equity mutual funds witnessed a massive outflow of Rs 10,147 crore in December, making it the sixth consecutive monthly withdrawal, even as the industry’s asset base surged to an all time high of over Rs 31 lakh crore.
However, investors put in Rs 13,863 crore in debt mutual funds last month as compared to Rs 44,984 crore in November, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Friday.
Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net inflow of Rs 2,968 crore across all segments during the period under review, much lower than Rs 27,194 crore inflow seen in November.
The asset under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry rose to an all-time high of Rs 31.02 lakh crore in December-end from Rs 30 lakh crore in November-end on inflow from debt funds.
As per the data, outflow from equity and equity-linked open ended schemes was at Rs 10,147 crore in December compared to Rs 12,917 crore in November.
Barring dividend yield and thematic funds, all the equity schemes have seen outflow last month.
The equity schemes had witnessed an outflow of Rs 2,725 crore in October, Rs 734 crore in September, Rs 4,000 crore in August and Rs 2,480 crore in July, which was their first withdrawal in over four years. Prior to this, such schemes had attracted Rs 240.55 crore in June.
The net outflows in December could be largely attributed to profit booking by investors on the back of surge in equity markets, experts said.
Apart from debt funds, gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed an inflow of Rs 431 crore last month. This comes following a pull-out of Rs 141 crore in November. This was the first outflow since March, when safe haven assets had seen a pull out of Rs 195 crore in March.
