Life firms, pension funds power Street

Life insurance companies and pension funds have added heft to the continuing inflow of money from domestic mutual funds into stock markets in the first six months of this year.

- Ram Sahgal & Abirami Sekar

Life insurance companies and pension funds have added heft to the continuing inflow of money from domestic mutual funds into stock markets in the first six months of this year. They have net invested ₹69,900 crore in the January-June period, the highest in any full year since 2021, per NSE data. Comparatively, they net invested ₹27,487 crore in the same period last year.

The inflows come in the face of net outflows from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Market experts said these inflows are expected to grow further as more investors turn to retirement-focused products.

"The inflows from pension and insurance will only increase with time and act as a bulwark along with mutual funds to the FPI selling," said Amol Joshi, founder of Plan-Rupee Investments. "As a younger population tends to be financially savvier than in the past, thanks to the growing equity cult, one might see them allocating more money toward growth assets like equity."