How were the money flows into mutual funds in the month of March 2022?

It was a tense month amidst Fed hawkishness, worsening war situation in Ukraine and rising inflation. However, investors reposed faith in Indian mutual funds, especially the equity mutual funds. In fact, while debt funds saw net outflows of over Rs.1.15 trillion, it was equity funds that saw aggressive net inflows to the tune Rs.28,252 crore. That is nearly 44% higher than the previous month and the equity market buying was spread across categories.

On the one hand, the NFOs or the new fund offerings contributed a healthy Rs.11,900 to the overall mutual fund flows, largely led by the SBI Multi Cap fund. That was not all, There was also a lot of positive flows to the tune of Rs.12,328 crore in March coming from the systematic investment plans or SIPs. This SIP flow for Mar-22 is a good 8% higher than the Rs.11,438 crore that flowed into SIPs in the month of February 2022.

What is the reason for this flows? Amidst the Russia-Ukraine conflict and monetary policy tightening by the US Fed, investors are perhaps opting for SIPs to invest regularly so that they don’t have to bother about timing the market. Monthly SIP collections have risen consistently since April 2021. Within Equity Funds, the biggest inflow of Rs.8,170 crore came into the SBI Multi-Cap fund. Even mid cap funds and large cap fund saw decent flows.