The Indian mutual fund industry's average assets under management (AUM) reached a record high of Rs.6.02 trillion in May 2008 compared to Rs.5.71 trillion in April 2008 (including fund of funds). According to Mr. Krishnan Sitaraman, Head, CRISIL FundServices, "Weakness in equity markets meant that debt funds continued to out-perform equity funds in May. Average AUMs rose 5.3 per cent or by Rs.304.82 billion in May mainly due to inflows in liquid funds and short term debt funds besides being supported by new fund offerings in Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs)."

CRISIL Mutual Fund Index Returns

The month of May saw CRISIL's debt indices continuing to post positive returns while those with equity components ending in negative territory. The CRISIL~Fund-LX, which tracks Liquid Funds, posted the maximum monthly gain of 0.64 per cent followed by the CRISIL Fund-dX, the Long-Term Bond Funds index, which returned 0.48 per cent. The CRISIL STBEX (which is used as the benchmark for Short-Term Bond Funds), gave a monthly return of 0.45 per cent while the CRISIL MF-Gilt Index gave 0.13 per cent returns. Among funds with equity components, the CRISIL MIPEX, the benchmark for monthly income plans posted the least negative returns of minus 0.68 per cent owing to a relatively lower equity component. The CRISIL Fund~eX (which tracks diversified equity funds) returned negative 4.81 per cent during the month while the CRISIL Fund~bX that tracks balanced funds was down by 4.07 per cent.

Top Return Generators

An analysis of open ended diversified equity schemes (growth option) revealed that Principal Global Opportunities Fund and HSBC Emerging Markets Fund were the top two performers in terms of monthly returns in May of 8.81 per cent and 6.57 per cent respectively. India focused funds were in negative territory due to the weak domestic equity markets. Among open ended domestic focused long term bond funds (growth option), ICICI Prudential Income Plan - Long term Plan gave the highest monthly return of 0.85 per cent, while among money market schemes, ING Treasury Management Fund saw the highest returns of 0.72 per cent in May. In the Liquid Plus category, Principal Liquid Plus Fund - Regular Plan saw the maximum monthly returns of 0.70 per cent.

AUM Toppers

Reliance Mutual Fund continued to be largest fund house and inched closer towards the Rs.1 trillion mark with average assets of Rs.984 billion in May 2008, up 2 per cent or by Rs.20.45 billion over April numbers. 25 out of 33 fund houses witnessed rise in their average AUM. In absolute terms HDFC Mutual Fund saw the highest increase in average AUM of Rs.43.36 billion in May.

Sourced from: CRISIL Limited