The assets under management of all the 32 mutual funds in the country jumped up 24.6 per cent to Rs 4,00,842.12 crore (Rs 4008.42 billion) in June, as against Rs 3,21,488.47 crore (Rs 3214.88 billion) in December last year.

"The mutual fund industry is on a robust growth path and investors should look at the long term underlying trend. In six months mutual funds have grown 25 per cent while on year-on-year terms it is a whopping 50 per cent growth," AMFI chairman A P Kurien told PTI.

Fund houses have collectively added a neat Rs 79,353.65 crore (Rs 793.53 billion) to their kitty within the first six months of 2007, the latest data from Association of Mutual Funds in India show.

Reliance [Get Quote] MF is the largest fund house in the country with AUMs of Rs 59,857.01 crore (Rs 598.57 billion) till June. The Anil Ambani group firm has added over Rs 22,929.09 crore (Rs 229.29 billion) to its wealth in the last six months.

Besides, ICICI [Get Quote] Prudential is ranked second with AUM of Rs 43,613.75 crore (Rs 436.13 billion), a growth of over 30 per cent in just six months. In December 2006, ICICI Pru's AUM had stood at Rs 33,304.57 crore (Rs 333.04 billion).

Meanwhile, public sector UTI MF, which was at the top in terms of AUM last year, has dropped to third place with AUM of Rs 39,031.87 crore (Rs 390.31 billion) in June. UTI MF has witnessed just 2.4 per cent growth in its assets over the six months, the AMFI data show.

Interestingly, the total AUMs of all mutual funds have witnessed a 3 per cent fall in June as compared to Rs 4,13,968.64 crore (Rs 4139.68 billion) in May. "The month to month changes in the AUMs are because of withdrawals by institutions, trust etc when in need of some liquidity and the money is again invested after some time, so it is a changing trend, " Kurien added.

Reliance MF added about Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) to its AUM in June, while ICICI Prudential dipped over 13 per cent or Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) and assets of UTI MF declined about Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in the month.

Other fund houses of HDFC [Get Quote] and Franklin Templeton maintain their fourth and fifth positions in terms of AUM. Their assets under managements stand at Rs 35,629.81 crore (Rs 356.29 billion) and Rs 26,469.44 crore (Rs 264.69 billion) respectively in June.