Investors lap up equity, index schemes

Chennai: With people becoming risk averse and aware of alternatives and willing to take risks, the migration to equity and index schemes is the pattern that would emerge, said Bank of Baroda (BoB) in a report. According to the report, mutual funds have grown in stature and do compete with bank deposits.

“While one can see a direct correspondence between debt schemes and bank deposits where risk-return tradeoffs are different, the migration to equity and index schemes is a reflection of the individual investor becoming more aware of the alternatives and willingness to take risk.

This could be the pattern going ahead,” the report said. Citing the data of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the report said the financial savings of households show an increased flow to mutual funds which rose from Rs0.64 lakh crore in FY21 to Rs1.60 lakh crore in FY22 and further to Rs1.79 lakh crore in FY23.