WHY THERE IS INCREASE IN INFLOWS IN HYBRID FUNDS?

Lately, the equity markets have witnessed a vertical movement that has stretched the valuations of the equity markets. In such circumstances, several investors choose to either rebalance their investment portfolio or end-up booking their profits. However, there are some investors who decide to not disturb their existing asset allocations of their investments and instead choose to invest in hybrid funds.

If you are wondering what hybrid funds are, then these are simply a type of mutual funds that invest in more than one type of asset classes. Hybrid mutual funds, also known as balanced funds, often invest in a mix of debt funds and equity funds, and sometimes other commodities as well such as gold. Since June 2021 to August 2021, the asset under management (AUM) of hybrid funds have increased by around 13%. What’s interesting to note over here is that it is not only the AUM that has witnessed the surge – the net inflows of the hybrid funds have increased in this span as well. In August 2021, the net inflows in the hybrid fund category stood at Rs 18705 crores! This is significantly higher than the equity and debt category which stood at Rs 8666 crores and Rs 1074 crores respectively. Do you know the reason behind it? No, don’t worry; In this article we will understand the reason behind the increase in the inflows related to balanced mutual funds.

According to a recent report by the Indian mutual funds’ regulator – AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India), different categories of hybrid mutual funds have witnessed a surcharged in the net inflows. Right from balanced hybrid funds or aggressive hybrid funds to multi asset allocation funds to conservative hybrid funds to dynamic asset allocation funds or balanced advantage funds to equity savings funds to arbitrage funds, all these balanced mutual funds have witnessed a surge in these three months – June 2021 to August 2021. Let’s understand this better.

Asset under management of hybrid mutual funds
June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 Increase
Aggressive hybrid fund/ Balanced hybrid funds Rs 1,31,475 crores Rs 1,35,589 crores Rs 1,40,797 crores 7.1%
Multi asset allocation fund Rs 16,073 crores Rs 16,432 crores Rs 17,059 crores 6.1%
Conservative hybrid funds Rs 14,564 crores Rs 17,080 crores Rs 17,378 crores 19.3%
Arbitrage funds Rs 94,841 crores Rs 1,08,178 crores Rs 1,08,251 crores 14.1%
Balanced advantage fund/ Dynamic asset allocation fund Rs 1,19,262 crores Rs 1,22,592 crores Rs 1,41,493 crores 18.6%
Equity savings fund Rs 11,380 crores Rs 12,031 crores Rs 13,136 crores 15.4%
Total Rs 3,87,594 crores Rs 4,11,902 crores Rs 4,38,114 crores 13%

From the above table, you can see that the highest increase in asset under management in absolute terms was witnessed by Balanced advantage fund/ Dynamic asset allocation fund. This is because these types of mutual funds are most suited category of mutual funds in an ambiguous market condition. This is because unlike static allocation funds, the dynamic funding mechanism of these mutual funds’ category aids these funds to be in a better position to feat the opportunity.