Mutual funds have Rs 1.3 lakh crore cash, Warren Buffett $168 billion. What about you?
investors continue to pour money into stocks and equity funds, asset managers are raising more cash in their portfolios. February month data shows that the total cash pile at equity mutual funds rose for the second consecutive month to 4.82% of total assets under management (AUM) at Rs 1.33 lakh crore.
SBI Mutual Fund was sitting at a war chest of Rs 25,100 crore and ICICI Prudential AMC Rs 21,700 crore. HDFC Mutual Fund's cash pile of nearly Rs 19,000 crore is about 6.8% of its AUM, shows data pulled from ACE Equity.
Among major fund houses, PPFAS and Quant are among the most conservative ones when it comes to hoarding cash. PPFAS' Rs 7,700 crore cash pile is worth about 12% of its AUM while Quant's sack of Rs 7,100 crore is about 12.7% of AUM.
Dalal Street's newer fund houses — Bajaj Finserv MF, Old Bridge MF and Samco MF — had the highest cash pile in AUM percentage terms.
Earlier in November, MFs were sitting on a cash pile worth 5% of their AUM which went down to 4.2% in December, only to rise to 4.36% in January and 4.82% in February.
Not just Indian mutual fund managers, even the legendary Warren Buffett is struggling to find value in a booming market. Berkshire Hathaway's treasure trove has grown to all-time high of $168 billion with Buffett admitting that the cash holding is far in excess of what conventional wisdom deems necessary.
Also read | Warren Buffett's $168 billion piggy bank outsizes market value of any Indian bank, LIC
Back on Dalal Street, the portfolios of mutual funds, especially
