Mutual funds are sitting on a whopping Rs 13,957.4-crore of cash, which is waiting to be deployed in the market, a mutual fund analyst said.

"Mutual funds are sitting on whopping Rs 13,957.4-crore of cash, but fund managers are anticipating correction before deploying it in the market, Sharekhan Ltd's Mutual Fund analyst, Sapna Jhawar, told PTI here today.

Flush with cash, MFs are well placed to maintain the buying interest and propel the market forward, Jhawar said.

Mutual funds bought stocks in banking and pharmaceutical sectors and slashed their exposure in power, telecommunications and oil and gas sectors in September 2009, she said.

Of the Rs 13,045.4 crore lies with the existing MFs, while the remaining Rs 912-crore has been mobilised through the NFOs.

The total Assets Under Management (AUM) of equity MFs stood at Rs 213,043.5-crore in September 2009, a growth of 5.4 per cent from August 2009. On adjusting for the net inflows/outflows, the growth stood at 6.4 per cent, which was marginally lower than the growth in the market, which grew by 7.5 per cent in the same period.

Birla Sun life Mutual Fund saw the largest increase of Rs 2,008.9-crore in its AUM, followed by Baroda Pioneer and Canara Robeco Mutual Fund.