Mata Securities India Pvt Ltd | SEBI Registered Research Analyst | Reg. No. INH000022668 | AMFI Registered MF Distributor | ARN-0158
SIF Industry Net AUM Surges 22.8% as Strong Inflows Drive September Growth: The Specialised Investment Funds (SIF) industry maintained its strong growth momentum in September, with month-end Net AUM rising 22.8% MoM to ₹38,287 crore, compared with ₹31,175 crore in August. Average AUM grew even faster, climbing 32.4% to ₹35,021 crore, reflecting the industry’s expanding asset base.
Strong Inflows Power SIF AUM Growth Despite Market Drag: Net inflows remained robust at ₹7,578 crore, marginally below August’s ₹7,699 crore, and exceeded the ₹7,112 crore increase in month-end AUM. This indicates that fresh investor subscriptions were the sole driver of AUM growth, more than offsetting a ₹467 crore negative mark-to-market impact. Despite market-related valuation pressure, sustained investor inflows underscored strong demand for SIF products.
Hybrid Strategies Dominate SIF Inflows and AUM: Hybrid investment strategies strengthened their dominance in September, attracting ₹5,174 crore in net inflows, up 10.8% MoM, and accounting for 68.3% of total industry inflows, compared with 60.7% in August. Hybrid Long-Short Funds led with ₹4,486 crore in inflows (+9.1% MoM), contributing 59.2% of industry inflows, while Active Asset Allocator Funds attracted ₹688 crore (+23.3% MoM). Consequently, hybrid AUM surged 23.5% to ₹26,413 crore, representing 69% of total industry AUM, with Hybrid Long-Short Funds alone commanding 62.6%.
Inflows Concentrated in a Single Scheme: September’s SIF inflows were heavily skewed towards Altiva Hybrid Long-Short Fund, which captured close to a third of industry inflows. RedHex Hybrid Long-Short Fund was the next-largest recipient, though at a considerably lower level. Including the Altiva Equity Long-Short NFO and Altiva Equity Ex-Top 100 Long-Short Fund, the Altiva fund house drew around two-fifths of the industry’s monthly inflows. This underlines how much of the industry’s growth still depends on one fund house.
Single-scheme concentration: Altiva Hybrid Long-Short Fund holds 29.3% of SIF industry AUM at ₹11,230.53 crore. That is 2.8 times the next-largest scheme, Magnum Hybrid Long Short Fund (₹3,981.67 crore, 10.4%). The top three schemes, all Hybrid Long-Short, together hold 47.6% of industry AUM, and the top five hold 58.6%.
Hybrid Long-Short dominates the leaderboard: Five of the eight largest schemes are Hybrid Long-Short funds, with combined AUM of ₹21,267 crore, or 55.5% of the industry. Altiva Hybrid alone accounts for 46.9% of the ₹23,957 crore Hybrid Long-Short category. This shows that the category’s growth is concentrated in a single scheme.
Equity Strategies Bear the Brunt of September’s Decline: SIF returns turned negative in September, with an average absolute return of −1.25% and only 7 of 33 schemes ending in positive territory. Equity-oriented strategies fell 3.11% on average, and all 11 Equity Long-Short funds closed in the red. Hybrid strategies held up better at a median of −0.49%. Their average of +1.28% is lifted by Qsif Hybrid Long-Short (+16.76%) and Qsif Active Asset Allocator (+13.62%), which took the top two places. Excluding these two schemes, the hybrid average is −1.04%.
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