Debt Mutual Fund schemes get a boost in May on hopes of rate cut

The mutual fund industry’s assets under management (AUM) were at a lifetime high of Rs 8.68 lakh crore in May helped by significant jump in demand for debt schemes as investors looked forward to gain from reversal in monetary policy rates. On the other hand, equity MF schemes witnessed sluggish demand and redemptions touched an eight-month high of Rs 2,910 crore in line with poor performance of benchmark indices. Data released by the Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) showed that MF industry’s month-end AUM rose Rs 42,900 crore, or 5 per cent, month-on-month in May. While the AUM of income funds, which include long-term debt funds, short-term debt funds, fixed maturity plans, rose 6 per cent to Rs 4.47 lakh crore, the assets of liquid funds also rose by Rs 21,700 crore to a 25-month high of Rs 2.06 lakh crore. However, some experts expressed concern over this saying that AMCs have not benefitted much from this as most of the flows are into fixed income, where margins are very thin. As per Industry expert shared a similar view that From the broader economy point of view, it is not a good sign that such huge inflows of money is coming into debt funds, as this clearly shows that corporates instead of investing in capital expenditure, are putting their money in mutual funds.

ICICI Prudential MF announces dividend under “ICICI Prudential Interval Fund II - Qtrly Interval Plan D”

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has declared Rs 0.2025 per unit as dividend under dividend payout option of scheme named as “ICICI Prudential Interval Fund II - Qtrly Interval Plan D” on the face value of Rs 10 per unit. The record date for the dividend is June 17. The NAV of scheme as on June 11, 2013 was at Rs 10.2032. The investment objective of the interval scheme is to generate optimal returns consistent with moderate levels of risk and liquidity by investing in debt securities and money market securities. The performance of the scheme is benchmarked against Crisil Liquid Fund Index and Manish Banthia is the fund manager of the scheme.