Retail investor is maturing: ICICI Pru MF

Nimesh Shah, MD and CEO, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund does not see huge redemptions and said that inflows have fallen sharply. He feels that the cash levels across schemes are not significant.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Nimesh Shah:

Q: What sense do you get from investors, any panic or redemptions that you are sensing?

A: We are observing this since the last four months that whenever the markets have gone down, we have not seen huge redemptions. In fact, the days when the market really went down, we used to see inflows of funds coming in and that’s the sign that the retail investor is maturing. On the days of the fall, you don’t see even normal redemptions coming in.

Q: Any midcap specific funds that you have and what kind of cash level calls have you taken for those?

A:  We are going by the mandate of the scheme and in this mandate, whatever is required for the liquidity at that point of time, that is the amount of cash that we have, otherwise there are no abnormal increases in the cash levels in our holdings.

Q: So across funds, what kind of cash levels would you be holding right now?

A: There are some specific funds where we are supposed to be taking cash calls; leaving those apart, it would be only around 10% cash levels. This can be done under normal circumstances also, but there are some specific funds where we are supposed to be taking cash calls; on those we would have taken the cash calls. Most of the funds where we are supposed to be invested, we are invested in the schemes.

Q: Any specific calls you have taken on the rate sensitives as sectors and wherever they may appear across your funds, for banks, real estate, autos, have you been decreasing exposure across funds?

A: That depends on the fund manager’s view at that point of time and depending on the mandate of the fund, we are invested in them and there is nothing specific to talk about on that area.

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