New Delhi, August 10: Equity mutual funds witnessed an outflow of Rs 2,480 crore in July, making it the first withdrawal in more than four years, primarily on profit-booking by investors.

Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net inflow of Rs 89,813 crore across all segments last month, from Rs 7,265 crore in June, data by Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed on Monday.

This inflow could be attributed to infusion in liquid funds and low duration funds.

Per the data, outflow from equity and equity-linked open ended schemes were at Rs 2,480.35 crore in July, as compared to an inflow of Rs 240.55 crore in June.

Such schemes had attracted Rs 5,256 crore in May, Rs 6,213 crore in April, Rs 11,723 crore in March, Rs 10,796 crore in February, and Rs 7,877 crore in January.

July 2020 saw the first outflow since March 2016, when equity schemes witnessed a pull out of Rs 1,370 crore.

In the same month, except for equity linked saving schemes (ELSS) and focused fund categories, all the other equity categories witnessed net outflow.

CEO of Amfi, N Venkatesh attributed the outflow from equity-oriented funds to withdrawal from multi-cap and large-cap funds due to profit booking by investors.

"Equity-oriented mutual funds witnessed their first major monthly net outflow in a long time. Multi-cap fund category was the worst hit followed by mid-cap and value fund categories,” Himanshu Srivastava, associate director (Research), Morningstar India, said.

This could be largely attributed to investors booking profit given the surge in the equity markets across market segments in the recent times, he added.

Multi-cap, midcap, value fund and multi-cap saw outflows to the tune of Rs 1,033 crore, Rs 579 crore, Rs 549 crore and Rs 365 crore, respectively, during the month under review.