Unlike the AUM, the folios are not vulnerable to market price movements. Hence, they reflect retail appetite for mutual funds a lot better. Remember, folios are not unique investors; that is captured by unique PAN, which is about one-fourth of the total folios. However, folios give us good short-term and long-term trends of where the retail appetite is shifting. The idea of MOM folio shift here is to understand how short-term appetite is shifting for mutual funds. 

Here is a quick macro picture of how folios have grown across broad categories of funds  

Data Source: AMFI 

Clearly, the overall growth in mutual fund folios has been driven by open ended funds; with close-ended funds seeing folio depletion as usual. Within the fund categories, the passive funds showed the best traction in MOM folio accretion, followed by hybrid funds and active equity funds, in that order. Forget the flows this captures the short-term flow trend.
 

Here is a quick look at how debt fund folios moved between August and September 2025. 

Data Source: AMFI 

The momentum of folios growth is visible largely at the short end of the duration curve, which shows a rising interest among retail and HNI investors to park funds in debt-oriented short-term funds. The action is also due to the quarterly advance tax payout. Overall, MOM folio growth for debt funds segment was at 0.55%. 

Here is how the equity fund folios moved between August and September 2025. 

Data Source: AMFI 

Interestingly, the fund categories that got the best flows, are also the ones seeing the best folio growth MOM. The real folio accretion is happening in the allocation via diversification funds, with some genuine interest in mid-caps as a source of alpha hunting. 

Here is how the hybrid fund folios moved between August and September 2025. 

Data Source: AMFI 

Hybrid funds seeing the best folio growth in September 2025 were the strategic asset allocation funds. The one exception is arbitrage funds, which is more an alternative to liquid funds. However, the real theme appears to be allocation across asset classes for best risk-adjusted returns. That appears to be the theme in currency in hybrid funds. 

Here is a look at how passive fund folios moved between August 2025 and September 2025. 

Data Source: AMFI 

As a category, passive funds saw a sharp revival with the best folio growth MOM for the second month in a row. Gold funds led the passive folio growth, which is not surprising considering that gold is at an all-time high level. Interestingly, folios of FOFs investing overseas are also catching up, albeit on a small base. 

Two themes have emerged from September. Firstly, passive funds are back in currency on the retail popularity chart. Secondly, across active equity and hybrid; the focus appears to be shifting towards smart asset allocation. That is a positive move!