The gilt trip

Investors continue to dump gilt funds. Popular with investors who expect interest rates to fall, gilt funds have in recent times have been a pariah among debt funds. The category has seen net outflows for the sixth straight month, one of the longest streaks in its history. AMFI data shows that over Rs 5,000 crore has flown out of debt funds, pushing assets under management of gilt funds to Rs 10,880 crore. Gilt funds, as you may know, invest solely in government securities or G-Secs. Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. Ltd launched India's first gilt fund in December 1998. Thereafter many other fund houses like SBI, ICICI Prudential, Reliance, UTI, and HDFC joined the bandwagon to unveil their very own gilt funds. Since G-secs are the most liquid of all instruments in the debt market, gilt funds are seen as debt schemes t