Mutual funds AUM drops to Rs 13.81 lakh cr in May

The asset base of country's mutual fund industry dropped to Rs 13.81 lakh crore at the end of May after hitting all time high in the preceding month.

The country's 43 fund houses together had an average Assets Under Management (AUM) of over Rs 14.22 lakh crore at April-end.

Industry experts said the decline in AUM in May was largely on account of outflows in the liquid or money market category.

Overall outflow in mutual fund schemes stood at Rs 58,185 crore at the end of last month, compared to an inflow of Rs 1.71 lakh crore at April-end, the data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed.

Of this, liquid or money market category saw a pull out of Rs 69,399 crore, while gilt funds witnessed an outflow of Rs 837 crore.

Liquid fund mainly invests in money market instruments like certificate of deposits, treasury bills, commercial papers and term deposits and gilt fund only invests in the government securities.

Mutual funds 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.