The Mutual fund industry’s asset under management (AUM) rose to a record high of Rs 22.79 lakh crore (Rs 22.79 trillion) in November, helped by positive investor sentiment after Moody’s upgraded the country rating, says a report.

In October, asset under management stood at Rs 21.41 lakh crore.

“The positive momentum of the industry continued in November and the overall investor sentiment was boosted by the country’s rating upgrade by Moody s,” according to a report compiled by Icra.

In November this year, Moody’s had upgraded the country’s sovereign rating by a notch to “Baa2” with a stable outlook citing improved growth prospects driven by economic and institutional reforms.

The rating upgrade had come after a gap of 13 years.

The rating agency had last upgraded India’s rating to “Baa3” in 2004.

Icra said the total net inflow for November stood at Rs 1,26,172 crore with the maximum inflow of Rs 77,408 crore witnessed in the Liquid category.

Equity (including equity linked savings schemes or ELSS), balanced and other ETFs saw inflows to the tune of Rs 20,308 crore, Rs 7,614 crore, and Rs 12,447 crore respectively.

In the reporting month, equity funds (including ELSS) witnessed monthly net inflow of Rs 20,308 crore, a significant growth of 124 per cent year-on-year.

So far in FY18, cumulative inflows into these funds have almost tripled to Rs 116,667 crore compared with Rs 40,706 crore in the year-ago period.

The mutual fund industry has added close to 9 lakh SIP accounts in each of the eight months in FY18.

According to Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI) data, SIP contribution for the month of November stood at Rs 5,893 crore as against Rs 3,884 crore in November 2016, a growth of 52 per cent.

The total folio count at the end November was 6.49 crore, 2.7 per cent higher compared with October, according to data from the Sebi.

The mutual fund industry added close to 17.56 lakh new folios in the month out of which 12.24 lakh were in the equity category (including ELSS).

Other ETFs as a category also witnessed phenomenal growth in folio count mainly due to the NFO of a particular ETF that received a very good response from investors.

However, folio count in Income, Gilt, Gold ETFs and Fund of Funds investing overseas witnessed de-growth from October-end levels.

The fall in folio count in debt categories could be because investors are preferring equity over debt as there are concerns relating to fiscal deficit and rising inflation, the report said.