Private sector funds have still outstripped public sector funds (exluding Unit Trust of India) in gross mobilisation of funds but if one compares the redemption and repurchase figures and the net accretion of funds position, the trend - where private sector funds were far ahead of their public sector counterparts in terms of their net inflow position - stands reversed.

Look at the figures. During June, private sector funds mobilised funds to the tune of Rs 2,356.05 crore while the public sector funds got Rs 422.17 crore. However, the private sector funds have also seen substantial redemption and repurchase requests totalling Rs 2371.77 crore leaving them with a net deficit of Rs 15.72 crore for the month.

On the other hand, in spite of the weaker flow of funds into the public sector schemes, they have also faced (comparatively) lower redemption pressure at Rs 229.80 crore leaving them with a net positive inflow of Rs 192.37 crore.

The outflow of funds from the private sector funds is not really surprising as some of them had already envisaged it. With the battering that many of the funds took in the market during the months of April and part of May, some of the more canny fund managers had predicted that once the market starts to rise, the funds would be facing redemption pressure as investors would be anxious to quit and at least cut some of their losses.

The irony is not to be missed - the same aggressiveness of the private sector fund managers which lured investors in the first place away from the public sector funds, would have served to turn them back to the latter. Barring one or two public sector funds, most of them decided to play safe and keep a good buffer stock of defensive scrips in their portfolio to counter the volatilities in the new economy stocks.

Reflecting the trend reversal the cumulative net assets position of the private funds for June showed a decrease of Rs 301.76 crore compared to an increase of Rs 626.76 crore for the public sector schemes during the same period.

UTI mobilised Rs 1393.91 crore in the month, faced redemptions of Rs 412.13 crore ending with a net inflow of Rs 981.78 crore while the net assets grew by Rs 2596.74 crore by June 30 to Rs 69663.05 crore.

For the period April to June, 2000 funds mobilised by the mutual fund sector stood at Rs 15832.97 crore, redemption and repurchases amounted to Rs 11791.90 crore leaving it with a net inflow of Rs 4041.07 crore and cumulative net assets of Rs 103342.06 crore.

During the three month period private funds had a net inflow of Rs 2466.42 crore and public sector funds had a net outflow of Rs 116.20 crore while UTI had a net positive flow of Rs 1690.85 crore.