With a staggering net inflow of Rs 22,583 crore, equity mutual funds witnessed its fifth consecutive monthly infusion in July, with flexi-cap category accounting for most of the inflow.

This was much higher than a net inflow of Rs 5,988 crore seen in June, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Monday.

Equity schemes saw a net inflow of Rs 10,083 crore in May, Rs 3,437 crore in April, and Rs 9,115 crore in March. Prior to this, equity schemes had consistently witnessed outflows for eight months from July 2020 to February 2021.

The inflow pushed assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry to an all-time high of Rs 35.32 lakh crore in July-end from Rs 33.67 lakh crore in June-end.

According to the data, inflows into equity and equity-linked open ended schemes were at Rs 22,583.52 crore in July.

Barring, equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS) and value funds, which saw withdrawal to the tune of Rs 512 crore and Rs 462 crore, respectively, all the equity schemes witnessed inflow last month.

Within the categories of equity funds, flexi cap segment saw the highest net infusion of Rs 11,508 crore.

This large inflow can be attributed to ICICI Prudential Flexicap fund and other new fund offerings (NFOs), Gopal Kavalireddi, Head of Research at FYERS said.

Apart from equities, investors put in Rs 19,481 crore in hybrid funds in the month under review. This included over Rs 14,924 crore in arbitrage funds.

Further, gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed a net inflow of Rs 257 crore last month, compared to Rs 360 crore in June.

In addition, investors infused a net sum of Rs 73,964 crore in debt mutual funds in the month under review compared to a net Rs 3,566 crore in June.

Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net inflow of Rs 1.14 lakh crore across all segments last month, compared to an inflow of Rs 15,320 crore in June.