NEW DELHI: Mutual fund industry’s asset base rose 6.5% to an all-time high of Rs 14.41 lakh crore in April-June quarter helped by strong participation from retail investors and robust inflow in equity schemes.

The industry, comprising of 42 active players, witnessed increase in average assets under management (AUM) to Rs 14.41 lakh crore in three months ended June 30, 2016, from Rs 13.53 lakh crore during January-March quarter, data available with industry body Association of Mutual Fund Industry (AMFI) showed.

Among the top five players, ICICI Prudential MF led the pack with asset base of Rs 1,93,296 crore (excluding Fund of Funds) followed by HDFC MF (Rs 1,92,776 crore), Reliance MF (Rs 1,67,009 crore), Birla Sun Life MF (Rs 1,49,093 crore) and SBI MF (Rs 1,19,878 crore). Growing participation from retail investors, huge inflows in equity schemes led to increase in the industry’s assets base, market experts said. Besides, inflows into systematic investment plans (SIPs) for equity schemes have been rising. SIP is an investment vehicle offered by mutual funds to investors, allowing them to invest using small amounts periodically instead of lump sums. The frequency of investment is usually weekly, monthly or quarterly. Besides, mutual funds added nearly 7.85 lakh investor accounts in the first two months of the current fiscal, taking the total number of folios to a record 4.84 crore. “Markets being choppy, retail investors identified mutual funds as a preferred vehicle for investing in market-linked securities. Equity has performed well as compared to other asset classes, retail investors having flavour for equity have come onboard through the mutual fund route,” Dinesh Khara Managing Director of SBI MF said.–PTI