Calcutta, Feb. 21: The mutual fund industry collected Rs 4,627.48 crore from a slew of initial public offerings (IPOs) of equity funds since October 2004. There are other major offers in the pipeline.

According to industry sources, total funds accumulated from these IPOs is expected to exceed Rs 8,000 crore.

?The funds seem to be in a hurry to raise as much assets as possible in the pre-budget session as they are afraid that if the market does not react positively post-budget, it will again be a slow rise for them,? said a mutual fund analyst.

?We feel it is extremely risky and investors should be doubly cautious before reacting so enthusiastically to such a deluge of equity fund IPOs,? he added.

?It is surprising that the corpus of Franklin Blue Chip Fund grew to Rs 2,000 crore after a consistent performance for about a decade, whereas the Franklin Flexicap Fund collected nearly the same amount during its initial offer period,? he added.

A similar slew of IPOs was witnessed during the technology boom in the last quarter of 1999 and early 2000. The schemes launched during that time grossed nearly Rs 2,500 crore ? the winners being Alliance New Millennium Fund with Rs 550 crore, Prudential ICICI Technology Fund with Rs 509 crore and Kotak Tech Fund with Rs 230 crore.

?Although the situation now is different, the rally this time around is broad-based and not concentrated on any single sector. However, it can not be denied that any blind rally is not safe for investors,? he said.

Association of Mutual Funds of India chairman A. P. Kurien tends to disagree. ?There are no risks associated with so many funds offering initial issues since the market expects the corporate sector to do extremely well in the long run,? Kurien said.

?Any investor who enters the market though the mutual fund way and stays for a long-term is bound to benefit,? he added.

Nevertheless, Kurien agrees that such an interest in IPOs stems from the fact that psychologically investors feel more comfortable investing in units with a face value of Rs 10 rather than established funds with high net asset values (NAVs).

?Although it is not a right way to look at investing, entering a fund at face value is still an attractive proposition for a retail investor,? said Kurien.

This interest has also resulted in a favourable shift towards the total equity component of the industry?s corpus, which has increased to almost 22 per cent at present against 18 per cent a year ago.

On the technology bubble burst, Kurien said, ?The stock market rally during that period was based only on one sector and a few dozen scrips, whereas this time it is across all sectors.?