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Inflows into India's equity mutual funds rose in December, led by small-caps, while the net assets under management (AUM) climbed above 50 trillion rupees for the first time, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed on Monday.

While the mutual fund industry took almost 50 years to build the first 10 trillion rupees of AUM, the last 10 trillion rupees was amassed in just over a year, supported by constant retail participation through systematic investment planning (SIP), said Venkat Chalasani, chief executive of AMFI.

Net equity mutual fund inflows rose to 169.97 billion rupees last month from 155.36 billion rupees in November, the data showed.

Small-cap funds accounted for most of the investments for the 15th straight month at 38.57 billion rupees, more than one-fifth of the overall equity mutual fund inflows.

In contrast, mid-cap funds saw inflows nearly halving month-on-month to 13.93 billion rupees, while large-caps witnessed outflows of 2.81 billion rupees, in December.

This is the 34th consecutive month of inflows on a net basis.

The sustained domestic inflows along with record monthly buying by foreign portfolio investors drove India's benchmarks, the Nifty 50 and the Sensex , to all-time highs, rising about 8% each in December.

Mutual fund inflows in equity-oriented schemes were at 1.62 trillion rupees in 2023, supporting the 20% rise in the Sensex and the Nifty, as well as powering the small- and mid-caps.

The small- and mid-cap indexes gained about 56% and 47% in 2023, respectively, helped by inflows worth 407.33 billion rupees and 224.04 billion rupees through equity-oriented mutual fund schemes.

Contributions into systematic investment plans (SIPs) - in which investors make regular payments into mutual funds - hit a new record of 176.10 billion rupees last month, with the number of SIP accounts also climbing to a new high of 76.37 million.