Mutual fund assets up 50% to 270m euros in 2007

Net investments in mutual funds amounted to over 60 million euros in 2007, and acted as the main driver for an increase in assets. Mutual funds reported an over 50% asset increase, to 954.2 million RON (272 million euros), below the 86% increase registered in 2006, with equity and balanced funds attracting the largest volume of investments. The asset increase was based primarily on capital inflows, given that the fund yields were affected by the weak performance of the Stock Exchange in the second half of the year. Yields brought by mutual funds last year ranged from 2.1% to 29.7%. Equity funds attracted 141 million RON (40 million euros) from investors in 2007, while balanced funds reported 81.4 million RON (23.2 million euros) in net inflows). Monetary funds were the least attractive for investors, ending the year with net outflows worth 3.3 million RON. Funds with investments in bonds reported 2.9 million RON in net inflows. In December, the biggest volume of net inflows was reported by the mutual funds managed by BT Asset Management. Equity fund BT Maxim, which registered a 24.7% yield in 2007, saw net inflows worth 52.7 million RON in the last month of the year. Equity fund BT Index reported net inflows worth 22.2 million RON during the same period.