MFs not seeing panic despite volatile markets

Pooja Meswani, CNBC-TV18

Are mutual funds seeing the impact of the volatile markets? The fund managers have said that they haven't seen any panic selling from retail investors, despite markets being extremely volatile.

There has been no panic selling in retail yet and since January '08 the average daily inflows have been at Rs 5-15 crore. The High Networth Individuals or the HNI institutions are ploughing some money back at current levels. There is no severe redemptions helping fund managers deploy cash. The average cash level is currently at 15-20%; in January '08 it had been 4-5%.

Fund Managers are looking at selective buying. Valuations look attractive for realty, engineering and capital goods. The new term pressure is likely to be on banking stocks. However banking stocks seem to be a good buy for long-term. The year-to-date net buy has been Rs 6,366 crore. In 2007, it was Rs 6,375 crore.