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The mutual fund industry has started this year with a bang, with its AUM touching Rs 52 lakh crore.

Equity oriented schemes saw total inflows worth Rs 21,780.56 crore, with the only exception being focussed funds, which saw outflows worth Rs 201.83 crore. This marks the 35th month of consecutive positive inflows in equity, a streak which started in March 2021.

Even the number of new SIPs registered in January, 2024 also reached a milestone, touching over 51 lakh. Total SIP contribution also touched a landmark high last month, at Rs 18,838.33 crore.

The small-cap funds category continued to register solid inflows with Rs 3,256.98 crores during January, 2024. Says Melvyn Santarita, Analyst, Morningstar Investment Research India Private Limited, “While gross purchases in the small cap category continued to be robust over the month, the redemptions in small cap category were the third largest among the equity categories possibly due to investors opting to book profits on the back of a sharp uptick in the performance of this category.”

At the same time, midcap funds saw funds worth Rs 2,061.18 crores flowing in, while large-cap funds saw Rs 1,287.05 crores worth of inflows. Interestingly, the large cap category saw its highest flows in 19 months with these net inflows.

Another interesting trend that emerged was the closing gap between the total AUM of large-cap funds, which stood at Rs 2,99,733.71 crores, and mid-cap funds, which was a resounding Rs 2,90,293.81 crores.

Santarita continues, “Among the equity asset class, the Sectoral/Thematic Funds category saw the highest inflows to the tune of INR 4,804.6 crores.

“The category also saw the launch of Quant Commodities Fund during the month which garnered INR 174 crores. Among equity asset-class, this category has now reached 150 schemes which is the highest “he continued.

Notably, as AMFI data notes, a total of 20 schemes were launched in January 2024,, including both open and close ended schemes, which raised a total of Rs 6,817 crores.

Amidst hybrid schemes, which saw a cumulative inflow of Rs 20,636.99 crores, multi-asset allocation funds witnessed its highest ever flows in a month, garnering Rs 7,079.5 crores. This impetus was aided by the launch of 3 funds in January 2024 (Bandhan, Mirae and Sundaram Multi Asset Allocation fund) which cumulatively collected Rs 4,247 crores.