Equity Fund Inflows At 23-Month High Even As Small, Mid-Cap Flows Ease In February: AMFI Data

Inflows into equity mutual funds surged to a 23-month high in February, even as investments into mid and small-cap schemes moderated with India stock benchmarks at record highs.

Net investment into equity and equity-linked schemes surged 23.34% over the previous month to Rs 26,865.78 crore in February, according to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India on Friday.

Mutual funds received inflows of Rs 11,469 crore during the month via new fund offers. Meanwhile, equity mutual funds receive inflows of Rs 8,692 crore via new fund offers.

Small-cap funds registered inflows of Rs 2,922.45 crore in February compared with Rs 3,257 crore in January. Large-cap schemes saw inflows of Rs 921.14 crore against Rs 1,287 crore inflows in the last month.

Mid-cap schemes received Rs 1,808.18 crore compared with Rs 2,061 crore in January. Inflows into multi-cap funds stood at Rs 2,414.04 crore against Rs 3,038.7 crore.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India had asked mutual funds to proactively protect investor interest amid "froth" building up in the broader end of the Indian equity market.

AMFI Chief Executive Officer Venkat Chalasani said there is no signal given to the market to avoid small, midcap schemes."We have asked risk management frameworks must be strengthened and disclosures to investors need to be improved in mid-, small-cap space," he told reporters in a conference call on Friday.

Chalasani also confirmed the initial disclosures regarding the results of stress tests would be made by March 15. NDTV Profit had reported that AMFI has instructed mutual funds to conduct stress tests specifically in mid- and small-cap schemes.

Liquid funds, used by corporates to park short-term cash, saw inflows of Rs 83,642.33 crore compared with inflows of Rs 49,467.7 crore in the previous month.

Credit-risk funds reported Rs 365.90-crore outflows. These schemes recorded outflows of Rs 302.68 crore in January.

Money-market fund outflows stood at Rs 136.73 crore in February against an inflows Rs 10,651 crore in January.

The debt-oriented funds witnessed inflows of Rs 63,808.82 crore in February against Rs 76,469 crore of inflow in the previous month.

The SIP contribution to the mutual funds industry reached a new peak, standing at a record Rs 19,186 crore in February, compared with Rs 18,838 crore in January.

"We have received 49 lakh new SIP applications in February", AMFI CEO said.

The overall net inflow of Rs 1.18 lakh crore across debt and equity schemes is the highest in nine months.