MFs add 59 lakh folios in FY'16; total hits record 4.76 crore

New Delhi: Showing a growing traction for mutual funds among investors, the number of folios have grown by over 59 lakh last fiscal, primarily on account of robust contribution from smaller towns.

This follows an addition of 22 lakh folios or investors' accounts in the preceding financial year (2014-15).

Folios are numbers designated for individual investor accounts though one investor can have multiple accounts.

Growing participation from retail investors, especially from small towns, huge inflows in equity schemes and several measures taken by markets regulator Sebi has led to sharp increase in folios, Sebi Chairman U K Sinha had said recently.

Capital markets regulator Sebi has given extra incentives for fund houses expanding into smaller cities.

According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data on investor accounts with 43 fund houses, the number of folios jumped to a record 4,76,63,024 last month from 4,1,740,206 at March-end, a gain of 59.23 lakh.

For a long time, investors accounts were not going beyond 2 crore.

Out of 59 lakh folios added last financial year, more than 25 lakh have come from towns beyond top-15 cities.

Besides, equity folios witnessed an addition of over 43 lakh to 3.60 crore folios.

Mutual funds have reported net inflows of Rs 1.34 lakh crore in total schemes. Equity and equity-linked saving schemes alone accounting for over Rs 74,000 crore in the total inflows helping the industry grow the folio count.

Interestingly, smaller towns have contributed 44 percent of such inflows.

MFs are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors and invest in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others.