India’s equity mutual fund inflows drop 14% in March despite market rebound: AMFI

Net inflows into Indian equity mutual funds dropped 14% month-on-month to ₹25,082.01 crore in March, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Thursday, despite a strong recovery in domestic equity markets.

The decline in inflows came even as the benchmark BSE Sensex rose 5.77% and the NSE Nifty 50 gained 6.30% in March, following a steep correction in February.

In February, net equity mutual fund inflows had slumped 26% to ₹29,303.34 crore, as markets faced heightened volatility and selling pressure.

Among equity fund categories, flexi cap funds led with inflows of ₹5,165 crore. Sectoral and thematic funds, which had seen robust interest with Rs 5,711 crore inflows in February, witnessed a steep decline to ₹735 crore last month.

Mid-cap and small-cap funds continued to draw strong interest, recording inflows of ₹3,439 crore and Rs 4,092 crore, respectively—slightly up from ₹3,406 crore and ₹3,722 crore in February. Large-cap funds, on the other hand, saw reduced inflows at ₹2,479 crore, down from ₹2,866 crore the previous month.

Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) saw net outflows of ₹77 crore in March, reversing the ₹1,980 crore inflow seen in February, as investors trimmed exposure to the yellow metal.

Besides, debt funds registered an outflow of ₹2.02 lakh crore in March as compared to ₹6,525 crore in February.

Overall, mutual funds experienced an outflow of ₹1.64 lakh crore during the month under review as compared to an inflow of ₹40,000 crore in February.

Despite the outflow, assets under management of the industry slightly increased to ₹65.7 lakh crore in March-end from ₹64.53 lakh crore in the preceding month.