MF industry AUM slips 0.2% MoM to ₹75.2 lakh cr in Aug; SIP flows strong at ₹2.8 lakh cr

The Indian mutual fund industry witnessed a marginal decline in August 2025, with total assets under management (AUM) slipping 0.2% month-on-month (MoM) to ₹75.2 lakh crore, after touching a record ₹75.4 lakh crore in July, according to Motilal Oswal Financial Services’ (MOFSL) latest Fund Folio report.

However, investors continued to park their money in mutual funds, as inflows and contributions in systematic investment plans (SIPs) stood at ₹28,270 crore in August, down just 0.7% MoM but up 20% year-on-year (YoY).

“Despite volatile markets, mutual funds continue to display strong domestic participation, with broad-based buying across large-, mid-, and small-cap segments,” MOFSL noted.

As per the report, the drop in AUM was impacted by outflows in equity, liquid, other ETFs, and gilt funds, even as gold ETFs, income, balanced, and arbitrage funds posted MoM gains.

Key triggers

Category-wise, the dip in AUM was driven by equity funds (-₹20,900 crore), liquid funds (-₹7,000 crore), other ETFs (-₹2,200 crore), and gilt funds (-₹1,600 crore). On the other hand, gold ETFs gained ₹4,900 crore, income funds added ₹3,600 crore, balanced funds rose ₹2,500 crore, and arbitrage funds increased ₹2,200 crore MoM.

The report showed that equity AUM slipped 0.6% to ₹36.2 lakh crore, weighed down by subdued secondary market performance and lower sales of equity schemes. Net inflows into equities moderated to ₹34,900 crore in August from ₹45,000 crore in July.

On flows, domestic institutional investor (DII) inflows into equities remained robust at $10.8 billion in August, taking CY25 year-to-date inflows to $62.3 billion, close to CY24’s full-year inflows of $62.9 billion.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) recorded outflows of $4.3 billion in August, the second consecutive month of selling. Outflows from Indian equities reached $15.1 billion in CY25 YTD versus $0.8 billion in CY24.

Sectoral trends

The NSE benchmark Nifty50 ended 1.4% lower in Aug’25, registering the second consecutive month of decline, while sales of equity schemes fell 18.5% to ₹68,700 crore. The pace of redemptions slowed down by 14.1% to ₹33,800 crore.

On the sectoral front, automobiles saw the biggest jump, rising by 50 basis points (bps) to a 10-month high weight of 8.5%, while private banks slipped by 50 bps to a seven-month low of 17.5%.

Among others, the technology sector’s weightage inched up by 10 bps to 7.9% after hitting a 14-month low in July, while healthcare allocations dropped marginally by 20 bps to 7.6%.