BENGALURU, March 10 Reuters Inflows into Indian equity mutual funds jumped over 25 sequentially to 156.86 billion rupees 1.91 billion in February, the highest in nine months, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India AMFI showed on Friday.

The rise in inflows offset some of the pressure on markets, which have witnessed sustained selling by foreign investors.

Foreign Portfolio Investors FPIs offloaded 341.46 billion rupees worth of equities in the first two months of 2023. The benchmark has fallen nearly 4 so far this year.

The rise in inflows into mutual funds demonstrates investor confidence in equityoriented schemes, said N.S. Venkatesh, chief executive officer of AMFI.

Smallcap funds accounted for most of the investments at 22.46 billion rupees, while inflows into largecap funds halved to 3.554 billion rupees from 7.16 billion rupees in January.

Favourable valuations after a correction in smallcap stocks have attracted investor interest and inflows into the sector, according to AMFI.

Contributions to systematic investment plans SIPs in which investors make regular payments into mutual funds fell 1 to 136.86 billion rupees after rising to a new record in each of the last six months, data showed.

The marginal fall in SIP contribution is due to fewer days in February, according to AMFI.

SIP contributions hit nearly 1.77 trillion rupees in the last 14 months, higher than foreign outflows into Indian equities of 1.55 trillion rupees.

The steady…