Mutual funds add 4 lakh folios in Oct

New Delhi: The mutual fund (MF) industry has added over 4 lakh investor accounts in October, taking the total tally to 9.37 crore, primarily on account of contribution from debt schemes.

Market experts said the addition of folios suggests that investors were undeterred by the market volatility. Besides, it indicates their understanding of the market risks associated with the mutual fund schemes, they added.

According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), the number of folios with 45 fund houses rose by 4.11 lakh to 9,37,18,991 at the end of last month from 9,33,07,480 at September-end.

The sector added 7.37 lakh investors account in September, 4.25 lakh in August, 5.6 lakh in July, 5 lakh in June, 6.13 lakh in May and 6.82 lakh in April. Of the total new folios last month, more than 2 lakh were added in debt funds.

Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts. An investor can have multiple folios. The number of folios under equity and equity-linked saving schemes rose by 30,000 in October to 6.39 crore.

Debt schemes folios count went up by 2.23 lakh to 75.25 lakh. Barring, long duration credit risk, all categories in debt funds witnessed growth in folios. Short duration funds added Rs 41,690 folios in October, followed by corporate bond funds (Rs 33,935), liquid funds (28,839) and banking and PSU (public sector undertaking) funds (Rs 17,075).

Overall, investors infused Rs 98,576 crore in various mutual fund schemes last month, driven by robust inflows in debt-oriented schemes. Debt-oriented schemes witnessed a net inflow of Rs 1.1 lakh crore in October, after recording net outflows for two months in a row.

The inflow was largely on the back of a significant investment in liquid, short-duration and money market categories. On the other hand, the equity mutual funds saw an outflow for the fourth consecutive month to Rs 2,725 crore in October, mainly on profit-booking by investors.