Mutual funds raise cash holdings by Rs 12,700 crore despite market rebound in April

Mutual funds increased their cash allocation by Rs 12,726 crore to Rs 1.98 lakh crore in April despite a strong market recovery. In March, mutual fund cash holdings had declined to a 16-month low of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, down Rs 24,184 crore, or 12% month-on-month (MoM), from Rs 2.09 lakh crore in February.

In April, Indian benchmark indices Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex gained 6.60% and 5.96%, respectively. (Source: ACE MF)

As a percentage of total AUM, cash allocation stood at 4.52% in April, compared with 4.72% in March. Total equity AUM was recorded at Rs 43.79 lakh crore.

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Among the 49 fund houses that disclosed portfolio data over the past two months, 25 increased their cash allocation in April. These included fund houses such as ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, Abakkus Asset Manager and Unifi Capital. Among them, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund recorded the sharpest monthly increase in cash allocation, adding around Rs 4,825 crore.

The other 24 fund houses reduced their cash allocation, including names such as Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund, JioBlackRock Asset Management and Zerodha Fund House. Among these, PPFAS Mutual Fund reduced its cash allocation the most, by around Rs 1,768 crore month-on-month.
Among the 50 fund houses, including the newly added Choice Mutual Fund, around 23 had more than Rs 1,000 crore in cash in their portfolios, while six fund houses held over Rs 10,000 crore in cash. SBI Mutual Fund, the country’s largest fund house by assets under management, had the highest cash holding at around Rs 29,712 crore, accounting for 3.92% of its total AUM.SBI Contra Fund and SBI Small Cap Fund held Rs 7,902 crore and Rs 4,826 crore in cash, respectively, in April 2026.

PPFAS Mutual Fund held Rs 27,559 crore in cash, accounting for 18.71% of its total assets, and had an equity AUM of Rs 1.19 lakh crore as of April 30, 2026. Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, the country’s largest active and flexi-cap fund by assets managed, held Rs 27,034 crore in cash, while the fund house’s ELSS and large-cap funds held Rs 515 crore and Rs 8.59 crore in cash, respectively.

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HDFC Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, the third- and second-largest mutual fund houses by assets under management, held Rs 23,819 crore and Rs 22,114 crore in cash, respectively, in their portfolios.

Axis Mutual Fund and Quant Mutual Fund were the other fund houses with cash holdings exceeding Rs 10,000 crore, at Rs 14,870 crore and Rs 12,076 crore, respectively.

This was followed by DSP Mutual Fund with Rs 8,421 crore in cash, while Nippon India Mutual Fund held Rs 6,633 crore. WhiteOak Capital Mutual Fund and Sundaram Mutual Fund held Rs 2,794 crore and Rs 2,145 crore in cash, respectively.

Radhika Gupta-led Edelweiss Mutual Fund held Rs 1,474 crore in cash in April. Invesco Mutual Fund was the last fund house with over Rs 1,000 crore in cash holdings, at Rs 1,181 crore.

Abakkus Asset Manager and Old Bridge Mutual Fund held Rs 495 crore and Rs 439 crore in cash, respectively. Choice Mutual Fund, a new entrant in the market, had the lowest cash allocation at around Rs 0.07 crore.

SIF cash allocation

With four SIFs currently in the market and data available for three, iSIF by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund had the highest cash allocation at Rs 328 crore. This was followed by Diviniti SIF by ITI Mutual Fund and Arudha SIF by Bandhan Mutual Fund, which held Rs 130 crore and Rs 23 crore in cash, respectively.

Data for QSIF by Quant Mutual Fund and Titanium SIF by Tata Mutual Fund was not available on ACE MF for April.

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Fund managers are allowed to keep a part of their portfolio in cash to meet requirements such as redemptions or to deploy capital when they identify investment opportunities in the market.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions expressed by experts are their own and do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)

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