End of 2010 as seen by mutual fund managers

Mutual fund managers are upbeat about the trend of the Stock Exchange in the last quarter of the year, with some of them banking on the fact that the possible floatation of Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund) in 2011 will put the domestic market back on foreign investors’ map, while others maintain the bad economic news is already included in current quotations and it will no longer take investors by surprise.

Intoxicated by last year’s Stock Exchange rally, fund managers are hoping stocks will continue their aggressive advance in 2010 as well. The nine-month Stock Exchange performance, with SIF stock as underperformers, proved their expectations wrong, though. The average yield of mutual funds stood at 5.5% in the first three quarters, four times lower than the average performance of the same period of 2009.
Nevertheless, the last quarter is likely to bring positive developments and is making the stock market a more profitable alternative than banking deposits, managers believe.