Showing a growing interest for mutual funds among investors, the number of folios has grown by 2.4 percent to cross 6 crores at the end of August, according to a report by ICRA.

The total folio count at the end of August stood at 6.08 crore, 2.4 percent higher compared to July.

The growth was primarily on the back of 10.9 lakh new folios added to the equity category (including equity-linked saving schemes) and another 2.36 lakh new folios to the balanced category, the report noted.

Besides, investor awareness initiatives by Asset Management Companies (AMC) and regulatory bodies are helping to enhance the financial awareness and maturity of investors, which in turn is driving this growth, it added.

The ELSS category, being a popular tax-saving instrument among investors, alone added 1.21 lakh new folios between April-August 2017.

However, folio count dropped by 3,580 and 1,546 in Gold ETFs and Fund of Funds investing overseas, respectively, from July-end levels.

The country’s smaller towns or B15 (beyond top 15 cities) locations accounted for 17.6 percent of the total industry assets base at August-end.

In the last 12 months, B15 towns have witnessed AUM growth of 39.1 per cent or Rs 1.04 lakh crore to reach Rs 3.70 lakh crore at the end of August compared to Rs 2.66 lakh a year back. The growth has come on the back of awareness campaigns by AMCs and industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

Overall, the assets under management (AUM) of the MF industry, comprising 42 players, reached an all-time high of Rs 20.6 lakh crore in August-end from Rs 19.97 lakh crore at the end of July.

MF is an investment vehicle that pools funds from many investors for investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

Source:moneycontrol.com