Mutual funds are sitting on an enormous Rs 13,957.4-crore (Rs 139.57 billion) cash and are waiting to deploy it in the market, a mutual fund analyst said.
"Mutual funds are sitting on a whopping Rs 13,957.4-crore cash but fund managers are anticipating correction before deploying it in the market, Sharekhan Ltd Mutual Fund analyst Sapna Jhawar told PTI in Mumbai on Thursday.
MFs are well placed to maintain buying interest and propel the market forward, Jhawar said.
Mutual funds bought stocks in banking and pharmaceutical sectors and slashed their exposure in power, telecom and oil and gas sectors in September 2009, she said.
Of the Rs 13,957.4 crore (Rs 139.57 billion)Â lying with the existing MFs, Rs 912 crore (Rs 9.12 billion) has been mobilised through new fund offerings.
The total assets under management of equity MFs stood at Rs 2,13,043.5 crore (Rs 2,130.43 billion) in September 2009, registering growth of 5.4 per cent from August 2009.
On adjusting for the net inflows/outflows, the growth stood at 6.4 per cent -- marginally lower than the growth in the market, which grew by 7.5 per cent in the same period.
Birla Sun life Mutual Fund saw the largest increase of Rs 2,008.9 crore (Rs 20.08 billion) in its AUM, followed by Baroda Pioneer and Canara Robeco Mutual Fund.
Fund managers made gross sales worth Rs 18,816.6 crore (Rs 188.16 billion) and turned net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,333.6 crore (Rs 23.33 billion) during the September.
Equity MFs (includes balanced schemes and equity-linked saving schemes) registered a net outflow of Rs 1,911 crore (Rs 19.11 billion) in September 2009.
Fund flows into the existing schemes declined by 11.5 per cent. Deterioration in the fund flows was largely due to a 40 per cent rise in total redemption volumes witnessed in the same month.
On the other hand, the inflows into new fund offerings rose more than ten-fold to Rs 912 crore (Rs 9.12 billion) as compared with only Rs 82 crore (Rs 820 million) in August 2009).
The NFO collections include the amounts raised by Shinsei Industry Leaders Fund, Kotak Select Focus, Sahara Star Value Fund, Franklin Build India Fund and Canara Robeco FORCE Fund.
In line with the upward trend in equity markets during the month, all sector funds delivered positive returns in September 2009 except the FMCG Index, which gave slightly negative return.
While banking, automobile and pharmaceutical funds outperformed the Sensex, the fast moving consumer goods funds underperformed the benchmark index.
The information technology funds delivered returns that were in line with the Sensex.
Additionally, while automobile, pharmaceutical, banking and technology funds
underperformed the BSE Auto Index, the BSE Healthcare Index, the BSE Bankex and the BSE IT Index respectively, funds in the FMCG sector outperformed the BSE FMCG Index.
Banking funds gave the highest returns in September 2009, followed by automobile funds and pharmaceutical funds.
