Mutual fund industry AAUM rises 21% in March despite monthly dip: ICRA Analytics

The Indian mutual fund industry’s average assets under management (AAUM) grew 21.32% year-on-year in March 2025, according to ICRA Analytics. However, AAUM dipped 1.25% from February 2025, reflecting a short-term decline across most categories.

Only Gold ETFs and Other ETFs posted positive monthly growth, rising 89.88% and 15.06% respectively. The fall in AAUM was broad-based, affecting most scheme categories.

Equity-oriented growth schemes continued to dominate with a 53.72% share of total AAUM, followed by debt-oriented schemes (15.06%) and liquid schemes (13.21%), ICRA Analytics said.

State-wise, Maharashtra led the AAUM contribution with 40.64%, followed by New Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, and West Bengal. Collectively, these top five states contributed over 65% of the total industry AAUM.
Among union territories and smaller states, Lakshadweep had the highest equity-oriented AAUM share at 91.98%, followed by Andhra Pradesh at 81.50%.

Sikkim saw the highest monthly growth in AAUM at 5.19%, while Gujarat and West Bengal saw the sharpest declines of over 2%. On a yearly basis, Lakshadweep topped the growth chart with a 71.61% surge, while Goa recorded the slowest growth at 15.51%, the report said.

Despite the monthly dip, all states and union territories posted positive year-on-year growth in March 2025.

It must be noted that net inflows into equity mutual funds slowed to a 1-year low in March 2025. Total inflows stood at ₹25,000 crore, down from ₹29,000 crore in February and well below the ₹42,000 crore high in October 2024.

Thematic and sectoral funds saw the biggest fall. Inflows into these categories collapsed to just ₹170 crore in March, down sharply from ₹22,400 crore in June 2024.

Manufacturing funds saw outflows for the second month in a row. Innovation, Quant, Infrastructure, and Energy funds also recorded their first redemptions in two year, marking the largest outflows since the COVID-19 era.