The financial year ended March 31, 2013 also marked the fourth consecutive year of net outflows by mutual funds (MFs) in the stock market. During the preceding three fiscals, the MFs had sold shares worth around Rs 33,000 crore.

As per the latest data compiled by market regulator Sebi, the net sale of shares by MFs during 2012-13 stood at Rs 22,749 crore -- which is the highest net outflow for a single fiscal since 2000-01 when funds had pulled out shares worth Rs 27,670 crore.

In the past four financial years till 2012-13, the mutual funds have cumulatively sold shares worth a net amount of over Rs 55,000 crore.

During the last fiscal, MFs were net sellers of equities in 11 out of 12 months, while June 2012 was the only month to record a net inflow of Rs 296 crore. The huge sell-off during the year coincided with a rise of about 8 per cent in the market benchmark Sensex.

On the contrary, mutual funds took a bullish stance on the debt market during 2012-13 with a net investment of Rs 4.74 lakh crore.

Since 2000-01, mutual funds have made a cumulative net outflow of Rs 81,663 crore from the equities, while they invested a net amount of Rs 15.4 lakh crore in the debt market during this period.

At the end of March, there were a total of 1,294 schemes under mutual funds, of which 857 schemes (66 per cent of the overall schemes) were income/debt oriented while 347 schemes (27 per cent of total schemes) were growth/equity related.

Besides, assets under management in the equities segment stood at Rs 1.79 lakh crore at the end of March 31, 2013, while it was Rs 4.9 lakh crore for the debt.

PTI