Just three mutual funds beat the BET in the first five months

Omninvest and Omnitrust, the two funds managed by SIRA company, held the top two positions in the ranking of the best performing mutual funds in 2010, bringing investors returns of over 20% in the first five months. The third fund, Raiffeisen Confort, generated a return of around 7%, while the rest of 48 funds did not manage to gain more than the BET index. During the same interval, the main Bucharest Stock Exchange index rose by 6%. After a strong first quarter, when the main stock exchange indices advanced by more than 30%, April and May brought a broad correction on the domestic stock market. Thus, in the past two months mutual funds exposed to stocks have largely lost the gains generated at the start of the year, with some of them posting even negative returns at the end of the first five months. Except two funds: Omninvest equity fund, which ended the period with a 22.07% return, and Omnitrust diversified fund, with a 21.75% gain. “The investment strategy embraced in the case of managed funds was to open short positions on US indices, given the high correlation between the Romanian and the US stock markets. (…) We thus managed to shun domestic market corrections,” said Marius Olteanu, CEO of SIRA management company.