Mutual Fund assets touch record in January; Reliance MF on top

After the decline in December because of stock market volatility, assets managed by the mutual fund industry has gone up and touched a new record for the month of January. Total assets (excluding fund of funds) managed by the industry went up by Rs16,061 crore to R3,39,663 crore as at the end of the month from Rs3,23,602 crore as of end December 2006. The industry had Rs2,07,110 crore in assets under management as of January 2006.

Reliance MF became the top mutual fund house in the country by adding a very impressive Rs2,092 crore to assets under management. Reliance MF had added Rs2,291 crore for the previous month to reclaim the position of largest private sector fund manager.

UTI Mutual Fund continued to see a decline in assets this month as well after a sharp fall of Rs3,514 during the previous month. Total assets managed by UTI MF declined by Rs574 crore and the fund house lost its top position to Reliance MF. UTI MF has been the top fund manager for the last many years, except during a brief period when Prudential ICICI overtook it.

Prudential ICICI saw its assets increase by Rs1,441 crore during last month after a decline of Rs1,927 crore in assets during the previous month. Birla Sunlife was the best performer for the month, adding Rs4,136 crore to its assets. SBI MF also did well with an addition of Rs2,466 crore while Tata MF gained Rs1,045 crore.