Systematic investment plans (SIPs) are catching up with the Indian investing public, feels Rahul Agarwal, director at Wealth Discovery. In an interaction with Banking Frontiers, he said at the end of FY17, SIP inflows stood at Rs439 billion and the total number of SIP accounts stood at 20 million. If the trend continues, FY2018 is likely to end with total SIP inflow of nearly Rs663 billion, he says, adding the BFSI sector has the highest asset allocation among MF investments – this figure stands around 27% as of now.
Agarwal said retail investor participation in the equity markets via the SIP route has witnessed robust growth in the last couple of years, for which the main reason is spectacular returns in the equity markets over last 3 years. Also, an average investor is more educated today about the benefits of SIP and the positives of early investments and compounding. SIP inflows have been robust so far, however if the market environment deteriorates the robust inflows might take a hit, he added.
