Equity mutual funds witnessed a net inflow of `3,437 crore in April, making it the second consecutive monthly infusion but lower than the amount recorded in March amid the second Covid wave.

The quantum is much lower than the inflow of `9,115 crore recorded in March, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India released on Tuesday.

Equity schemes had consistently witnessed outflow for eight straight months from July 2020 to February 2021.

“The net flows into equity funds have continued, which is very encouraging. Flows slowed down a bit compared to March largely because of the disruption caused by the second wave of the pandemic,” G Pradeepkumar, CEO of Union AMC, said.

He also said the flow is expected to pick up pace once the pandemic is brought under control through increased levels of vaccination and other measures.

Making a similar statement, Arun Kumar, Head of Research at FundsIndia, said the inflow trend remains positive while the recent spike in covid cases is a concern and we need to monitor the impact on investor sentiment and behaviour in the near term.

“With the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic putting pressure on citizens to hold a higher emergency corpus for medical needs, investor interest is a tad down and can be expected to recover in the waning phase of this health scare,” Gopal Kavalireddi, Head of Research at FYERS, said.

Apart from equities, investors infused over `1 lakh crore in debt mutual funds in April after withdrawing ` 52,528 crore in March, on the back of strong inflows into liquid, money market and overnight segments.

Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed an inflow of ` 92,906 crore across all segments during the period under review compared to an outflow of `29,745 crore in March.

As per the data, inflow into equity and equity-linked open ended schemes was at `3,437.37 crore in April.