Finally, equity MF plans see inflows in Jan

Equity mutual fund schemes, which were witnessing huge redemptions in the last six months, have finally started seeing inflows in January.

Three new fund offers were also successfully launched in January 2010. Not only equity schemes, but income schemes also saw net inflows for January 2010 as several corporates parked their surplus cash with mutual funds.

According to the data provided by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), equity schemes saw net inflows of over Rs 980 crore, while income schemes saw inflows of over Rs 1.06 lakh crore in January, 2010. However, redemptions were seen in the money market linked funds, which saw around Rs 10,000 crore worth outflow and and gilt schemes, which was at Rs 257 crore.

K Ramakumar, head fixed income at Sundaram PNB Paribas Mutual Funds, said, "In the month of December we had seen intense redemptions in the Income schemes, as banks and corporates had pulled out money. However again in January, as it was expected, we have seen some decent inflows in income schemes as corporates and banks and parked fund in the schemes."

In January 2010, the industry saw net inflows of over Rs 97,000 crore, according to the data by Amfi. Since August till December, equity schemes had seen redemptions of over Rs 7,300 crore as distributors had stopped selling the mutual fund schemes after the ban on entry load.

However, in January, Axis Equity Fund, Fidelity Value India fund and BNP Paribas Thematic Funds-PSU Opportunities collected over Rs 1,600 crore. Gopal Agarwal, head equity at Mirae asset global investment management, said, "In the last few months we had seen investors booking the profit after the surge in the equity markets. And in January once again we have seen some retail investors coming and investing in the mutual funds."