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The Finance Ministry on Wednesday said fundraising through public and rights issues surged 115 percent and 15 percent, respectively, in 2020-21 despite the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of numbers, FY21 witnessed 55 initial public offerings (IPO) and one follow-on public offer (FPO), the ministry said in a statement.

In the fiscal, 21 rights issues were successfully completed as against 17 in the previous year, it added.

“During 2020-21, Rs 46,029.71 crore and Rs 64,058.61 crore were raised through Public Issues and Rights Issue, respectively, as against Rs 21,382.35 crore and Rs 55,669.79 crore raised last year. This is an increase of 115 percent and 15 percent, respectively, in 2020-21 as compared to last year,” the ministry said.

Similarly, around 2003 issues of corporate bonds for an amount of Rs 7,82,427.39 crore happened in 2020-21, surpassing the amount raised (Rs 6,89,686.19 crore) through 1,821 issues for the fiscal year 2019-20, it noted.

Thus, it said, while the number of issues increased by 10 percent in 2020-21, the amount raised increased by 13.5 percent as compared to the previous financial year.

Indian capital market has shown its resilience to withstand the ripples caused by exogenous shocks like the pandemic, it said, adding assets under management (AUM) of mutual fund industry increased by 41 percent from Rs 22.26 lakh crore as on March 31, 2020, to Rs 31.43 lakh crore as on March 31, 2021.

The number of unique investors across mutual fund schemes also increased by 10 percent from 2.08 crore as of March 31, 2020, to 2.28 crore as of March 31, 2021.

With the increasing expansion of the mutual fund industry in smaller cities, the AUM from below the top 30 cities increased by 54 percent from Rs 3,48,167 crore as of March 31, 2020, to Rs 5,35,373 crore as of March 31, 2021, the ministry said.

Investors in the mutual fund industry may choose to invest in any of the 1,735 schemes across categories as per their investment objective as of March 31, 2021, it added.