Price Moves, Not Flows, Drove Mutual Fund AUM Growth in October 2025

India’s mutual fund industry came close to touching the ₹80 trillion mark in October 2025. At first glance, it looks like investors poured massive money into equity funds. But the real story is different - this AUM jump was driven far more by market rally than by investor inflows.

Between September and October, overall MF AUM rose from ₹75.36 trillion to ₹79.62 trillion, an accretion of ₹4.26 trillion. But for equity-linked categories, price appreciation did most of the heavy lifting.

The Macro Picture: How AUM Shifted in October 2025

Debt funds typically see AUM changes due to inflows or outflows. But equity funds, hybrid funds, and passive equity funds move based on two forces - new flows and market price changes (MTM gains). In October 2025, the second factor dominated.

Here's how each segment behaved:

• Debt funds: Only 6.79% of AUM growth came from price moves; 93.21% came from flows.
• Hybrid funds: 62.85% of AUM accretion was due to price appreciation.
• Passive funds: 75.32% of AUM accretion came from price gains.

Equity-linked categories benefited sharply from the October index rally and this shows up clearly in the numbers.

Equity AUM: The Core Story

In October 2025, equity mutual funds saw overall AUM accretion of ₹1,48,434 crore. But here’s the real insight:

• Only ₹24,690 crore came from investor inflows.
• A massive ₹1,23,744 crore came from price appreciation.

That means 83.37% of the AUM rise was due to the market rally - not investor money. Only 16.63% came from fresh investments.

In simple words: investor portfolios grew because markets went up, not because investors bought more.

Breaking Down the Category-Wise Data

The table below summarizes the key metrics for active equity categories.

Data Source: AMFI (absolute numbers are ₹ in crore).

What the Table Tells Us

1. Highest Price Dominance (118% – 95%)

Categories like Dividend Yield, ELSS, Value/Contra, Large Cap, and Sectoral/Thematic had extremely high price dominance. This usually happens when:

• Inflows are weak or negative, and
• Market rally lifts NAV sharply.

2. Middle Zone (86% – 74%)

Mid Cap, Large & Mid Cap, Small Cap, Multi Cap funds saw strong flows, but price appreciation still formed the bulk of AUM rise.

3. High Inflows + High Appreciation (Flexi Cap, Sectoral/Thematic, Mid Cap)

These categories contributed the highest rupee AUM gains. Flexi Cap alone added ₹25,840 crore, with healthy SIP flows plus market gains.

Why Did This Happen?

The October 2025 market rally lifted equity NAVs across categories. So even categories with low inflows ended up showing high AUM growth.

Meanwhile:

• Hybrid funds saw 62.85% AUM growth from price moves.
• Passive equity funds saw 75.32% AUM growth from price moves.

Essentially, October was a month where the market did most of the work.

Investor Takeaways

• Most of the AUM rise came from market returns, not investor buying.
• AUM spikes don’t always mean people invested more - sometimes prices just rose.
• The categories contributing the most AUM were Flexi Cap, Mid Cap, and Sectoral/Thematic funds.
• High price dominance months can reverse if markets cool.
• Flows remained positive but modest compared to price-driven gains.

In short, October 2025 was a reminder that mutual fund AUM doesn’t always reflect investor behaviour - sometimes it’s just the market lifting the tide.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.