Equity mutual funds recorded an outflow of Rs 9,253 crore in January 2021, making it the seventh consecutive monthly withdrawal, primarily because of massive pull-out from the newly created flexi fund category.

Also, investors pulled out Rs 33,409 crore from debt mutual funds last month after investing Rs 13,863 crore in December, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Tuesday.

Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net outflow of Rs 35,586 crore across all segments during the period under review, compared to Rs 2,968 crore inflow seen in December on investment from hybrid and other schemes.

According to the data, the outflow from equity and equity-linked open-ended schemes was at Rs 9,253 crore in January as against Rs 10,147 crore in December.

Barring multi-cap, sectoral and dividend yield funds, all the equity schemes have seen outflow last month. The newly created flexi cap category saw maximum outflow to the tune of Rs 5,934 crore.

Equity schemes had seen an outflow of Rs 12,917 crore in November, Rs 2,725 crore in October, Rs 734 crore in September, Rs 4,000 crore in August and Rs 2,480 crore in July, which was their first withdrawal in over four years. Before this, such schemes had attracted Rs 240.55 crore in June.

Apart from debt funds, gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed an inflow of Rs 625 crore last month, higher than Rs 431 crore seen in December.

The assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry stood at Rs 30.5 lakh crore in January-end from Rs 31.02 lakh crore in December-end.