But though the equity market has seen investor wealth (market capitalisation) increase multifold in the period, the fund industry has not done so well.
In an industry that seems to have decided for itself that success is measured by the size of assets under management, it has managed to grow at a remarkably slow pace.
The total assets under management of the Indian mutual fund industry rose by 1.49 per cent (Rs 2,243.49 crore) from Rs 1,50,260.35 crore (Rs 1502.60 billion) in December 2004 to Rs 1,52,503.85 crore (Rs 1525.03 billion) in January 2005, according to figures from the Association of Mutuals Funds of India website.
Tata Mutual Fund saw the biggest gain in relative terms, adding Rs 1,346.52 crore (Rs 13.46 billion), about 22.39 per cent to its AUM.
Its AUM jumped from Rs 6,014.76 crore (Rs 60.14 billion) to Rs 7,361.28 crore (Rs 73.61 billion) on the back of an extremely successful IPO in December that helped it garner more than Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion).
Benchmark Mutual Fund added 58.13 crore (15.30 per cent) of AUM to Rs 437.98, the SBI Mutual Fund saw its AUM increase from Rs 5,425.97 crore (Rs 54.25 billion) to Rs 6,253.02 crore (Rs 62.53 billion), an increase of 15.24 per cent (Rs 827.05 crore), the Kotak Mutual Fund AUM increased to Rs 6,059.13 crore, a gain of 13.35 per cent (Rs 713.40 crore) and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund saw its AUM increase from Rs 8,924.70 crore to Rs 9,943.98, a gain of 11.42 per cent (Rs 1,019.28).
Industry watchers said that most of the mutual funds have had a tough time garnering fresh funds under old schemes and have been resorting to launching new funds to add to their AUM.
In fact, only some good performers from the older schemes have been able to attract fresh inflows.
MF distributors added that most MFs resort to selling new schemes aggressively as it turns out to be cheaper to garner larger amounts in IPOs. But they added that ultimately only the good performing funds find repeat investors.
Deutsche Mutual Fund was the biggest loser in AUM in relative terms, with a fall of more than 15 per cent (Rs 336.59 crore) to Rs 1,903.06 crore (Rs 19.03 billion), BOB Mutual Fund saw its AUM fall from Rs 181.01 crore (Rs 1.81 billion) to Rs 156.88 crore (Rs 1.56 billion), down 13.33 per cent (Rs 24.13 crore) and the Sahara Mutual Fund AUM fell from Rs 293.11 crore (Rs 2.93 billion) to Rs 262.14 crore (Rs 2.62 billion), down 10.57 per cent (Rs 30.98 crore).
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