Asian stock indices are higher following the stronger lead from Wall Street overnight on political developments out of Washington. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.45%, while the Hang Seng is up 0.23%. The Nikkei 225 is trading up by 0.37%. Overnight, the US stocks closed higher, led by gains in the energy sector.

Back home, share markets in India have opened the day on a positive note. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 142 points while the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 41 points. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.9% & 0.8% respectively.

All sectoral indices have opened the day in green with stocks from automobile sector and realty sector leading the pack of gainers. The rupee is trading at 64.21 to the US$.

Mutual funds’ assets under management (AUMs) hit a record Rs 20.6 trillion in August, as falling fixed deposit rates prompted investors to move money to equity funds.

According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), total AUM rose 2.3% in August. This was backed by a 60% jump in net inflows in equity schemes to Rs 203.6 billion-the highest ever, from the month before.

Touching New Highs

 

The record flows cemented the belief that the industry is going through a structural uptrend due to improvement in financial savings and dimming appeal of traditional asset classes such as gold and real estate.

Diversified equity funds got net flows of Rs 195.2 billion, while tax-saving equity schemes netted another Rs 8.5 billion. The industry AUM increased to Rs 20.6 trillion from Rs 19.96 trillion in July.

With the latest inflows, the overall equity AUM has comfortably surpassed the Rs 7-trillion mark. This excludes assets under exchange traded funds (ETFs), which too are fast gaining popularity.

Currently, there are over 15 million systematic investment plans (SIPs) registered – mostly equity oriented. And the monthly SIP inflows stand at Rs 50 billion.

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