With global financial crisis hurting investor sentiments, fund houses' AUMs went down in September
03-Oct-2008 •Research Desk
The global financial crisis, particularly the turmoil seen in the US financial circles, has had its impact on the Indian capital markets as well. The Indian stocks markets witnessed a significant fall in September, the Sensex shedding nearly 12 per cent. The unpredictable markets, that seem to shake at the slightest provocation, have hurt the investors' sentiments and predictably the fortunes of the fund houses as well. In September, the combined assets under management (AUM) of fund houses fell by nearly 2.5 per cent.
The 33 fund houses that declared their AUM saw their combined assets slip by Rs. 13,770 crore to stand at Rs. 5.15 lakh crore. 20 of these 33 fund houses witnessed a dip in their AUM.
All the top 10 fund houses have seen a steep decline in their assets. Reliance Mutual Fund retained the top slot in terms of assets under management even though its assets declined by two per cent to Rs 86,494 crore. HDFC Mutual Fund was the second largest fund house with assets worth Rs 51,998 crore, which was down by Rs 1,860 crore from the previous month. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, held the third position with assets worth Rs 49,772 crore even though it was a whopping Rs 3,320 crore less than the previous month. UTI Mutual Fund which held Rs 44,623 crore, after losing Rs 2,324 crore was the fourth largest in terms of assets under management.
Other fund houses which saw a steep decline in assets were JM Financial Mutual Fund, which lost nearly Rs 1,540 crore of its assets to be left with Rs 10,446 crore and Principal Mutual Fund which shed nearly 1,114 crore to take its assets to Rs 9948 crore. LIC Mutual Fund lost nearly Rs 984 crore while DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund lost nearly Rs 906 crore.
On a brighter note, some fund houses also saw a surge in their assets. Canara Robeco Mutual Fund saw its assets surge by nearly Rs 1,090 crore to Rs 6,006 crore. Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund added Rs 642 crore while Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund added Rs 632 crore to their respective AUMs. Apart from these, ABN AMRO Mutual Fund (Rs. 591 crore), Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund (Rs. 389 crore) and Deutsche Mutual Fund (Rs. 228 crore) also saw a significant surge in their assets.
Another notable development this month was that the new fund house, Edelweiss Mutual Fund declared its AUM for the first time which stood at Rs 301 crore.
In the beginning of October, however, things are appearing to look good again. The Sensex is trying to regain some lost ground and the fund companies will hope that the financial crisis ends so that the investors return to the markets.
