MFs not hit by market crash: Crisil

Assets being managed by mutual funds mostly remained unaffected by the stock market crash last month as new investors continued to enter at lower levels in search of buying opportunities, research firm Crisil said on Friday.

"Of the 32 fund houses, as many as 14 actually registered an increase in assets under management (AUMs) in January," Crisil FundServices' Head (Fund Services and Fixed Income Research) Krishnan Sitaraman said.

"The mutual fund AUMs were, by and large, resilient to the stock market crash. New investors continued to enter at the low levels, and look out for buying opportunities, new fund offers and inflows into debt funds," Sitaraman added.

Despite the fall in the market, mutual funds were net buyers in the secondary equity market, by Rs 7,700 crore (Rs 77 billion) in January 2008, up from Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) in December 2007, Crisil said its monthly update on MF industry.

The total AUM dropped only marginally by Rs 2,200 crore (0.4 per cent) to Rs 5,52,000 crore (Rs 5.52 trillion) as on January 31, against Rs 5,54,000 crore (Rs 5.54 trillion) a month ago, despite a sharp correction in equity markets.

The NSE benchmark Nifty lost more than 16 per cent in January 2008 over the previous month. Anil Ambani group's Reliance Mutual Fund continued to top the AUM sweepstakes in January with an AUM of Rs 77,200 crore (Rs 772 billion), followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (Rs 64,100 crore).

UTI MF, which has filed a draft prospectus for an IPO, however, slipped to third position with an AUM of Rs 52,700 crore (Rs 527 billion), followed by HDFC MF (Rs 43,800 crore) and Birla Sun Life MF (Rs 36,000 crore).