FIIs make a comeback in August
Mumbai: The recently exited, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) seem to be back in operation at the domestic bourses, both in volumes of business as well as in the arrival of new funds starting operations here.

So far FIIs have pumped in about $1 billion worth of investments in August, which is the biggest single-month inflow in the last five months. Also, the number of new FIIs registered with Sebi during the month came in at 22, also the highest in the last four months. The total number of FIIs in India now stands at 956, compared with 823 at the beginning of this calendar year.

Six new FIIs from the UK, four from the US, three from Japan, two from Ireland, and one each from Canada, Finland, France, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea registered with Sebi in August.

The bellwether BSE-30 Sensex gained by 947.39 points, or about 9 per cent, during the month to touch 11,699.05.

In May, FIIs had cumulatively pulled out Rs7,354.20 crore ($1.6 billion) from the equity market as part of a global meltdown.
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UTI MF back at the top as largest MF in the country
New Delhi: UTI Mutual Fund has regained its long-held position as the largest MF house in the country, after a three-month absence when Prudential ICICI basked in the glory. ICICI Pru has now slipped back to the second slot, according to the latest data available with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

UTI MF's total Assets Under Management (AUM) surged 13 per cent to over Rs35,000 crore in August, exceeding Prudential ICICI's total AUM of Rs34,119 crore at the end of the month.

Prudential ICICI's assets under management rose about 9 per cent during the month from Rs31,431 crore in July this year. UTI Mutual Fund had total assets of less than Rs31,000 crore under management at the end of July.

UTI MF, as well as a host of other fund houses, have witnessed a significant growth in their assets over the past one month. According to Reserve Bank of India's annual report, released last week, the share of mutual funds in household savings has shot up close to 4 per cent from less than 0.5 per cent a year ago.

The net household investments in MFs jumped to Rs21,000 crore in 2005-06, from Rs1,500 crore a year ago, the report said. According to AMFI data, Reliance Mutual Fund maintained its third position in terms with total AUM at Rs28753.28 crore, followed by HDFC Mutual Fund and Franklin Templeton at fourth and fifth positions with AUMs of Rs25891.63 crore Rs24198.24 crore, respectively.

The total AUMs across all the fund houses stood at Rs2,79,305.64 crore at the end of august. However, this does not include AUMs of LIC, Lotus India and Birla Sunlife Mutual Funds, which are yet to report their figures for the month.
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