The month of October 2008 saw investors losing their investments in the equity markets as the Sensex fell by 23 per cent, its sharpest fall in the year so far. At the same time, Indian companies suffered huge losses as well. And at a time when everyone was seeing an erosion in their assets, mutual funds weren’t sparred either. The massive downslide and huge redemption in liquid schemes resulted in heavy decline in fund assets.
The combined assets of 35 fund houses declined from Rs. 5.3 lakh crore in September to nearly Rs. 4.3 lakh crore in October, a fall of a whopping Rs. 97,367 crore. Overall, the combined assets of the mutual fund industry dipped by nearly 18 per cent in October.
Predictably, no fund house has come out with its head over the water. All 35 of them, which declared their assets under management (AUM) for October witnessed a dip. The biggest fund houses emerged as the major losers. Reliance Mutual fund led the fall with a dip of Rs. 15,400 crore in its assets from the previous month. The total assets of the fund house are reduced to Rs. 71,093 crore in October. ICICI Prudential Mutual fund saw its assets decline by Rs. 10,594 crore to end at Rs. 39,209 crore. HDFC Mutual Fund also lost Rs. 6,519 crore to be left with Rs. 45,479 crore worth of assets.
However, despite a tremendous fall in their assets these fund houses have maintained their positions intact. Reliance Mutual Fund still continues to be the largest fund house in terms of assets, followed by HDFC Mutual fund. The third position is held by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund while UTI Mutual Fund emerged as the fourth largest mutual fund company.
As far as individual funds go, the highest percentage fall in assets was seen in Mirae Asset Mutual Fund which saw its assets decline by 57 per cent from the previous month to Rs. 1,004 crore. AIG Global Investment Group Mutual Fund also lost 44 per cent of its assets to be left with Rs. 1,689 crore in October.
Amongst the new fund houses, Edelweiss Mutual Fund which declared its assets for the first time in September 2008 has seen its assets decline by Rs. 74 crore to end at Rs. 228 crore in October. On the other hand, Bharti AXA Mutual Fund didn’t see a major fall, with its assets hovering around nearly Rs. 470 crore in September as well as October 2008.
The two new fund houses, Religare Aegon Mutual Fund and Goldman Sachs Mutual Fund, haven’t launched any funds as yet and thus haven’t acquired any assets so far.
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