Mutual funds come out of hibernation

More than 500 private investors invested in mutual funds this January that mainly invest in stock. They were attracted by the strong growth of the stock exchange in the first month of this year, which was constantly reported in the media. The BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange rose by 30% in January.

As a result, mutual funds that mainly invested in listed stock – the so-called equity funds: Active Dinamic, FON, Intercapital, Napoca, Omnimvest and KD Maximus – reported considerable increases for managed assets in January thanks both to money inflows coming from investors and the recent stock surges.

Placements in mutual funds last month produced average gains of 5%, equivalent to banking interest over four months, while gains by investors in equity funds reached 20%. The best performer last month was the SIRA-managed fund Omninvest, which grew by 21.1%. This was followed by Napoca’s 17.3% yield, and Intercapital’s 16.4%.

The assets of the six funds that have placed over 40% of the value of their assets in stock climbed by almost 60% last month, hitting 297 billion ROL (8 million euros). Together, these funds enjoy a 13% share of the mutual funds market. Their managers say that the significant asset growth was triggered by investors seeking large gains.

“Apart from the higher value of investments, we also saw important capital inflows in the Napoca fund last month. Unfortunately, investors are only attracted by mutual funds because of their high performance. I’d rather investors chose funds for the advantages they offer in comparison with other placement alternatives,” said Walter Blaj, executive manager with Globinvest, which manages the Napoca and Transilvania funds. The main benefits to be had from investing in funds are their high liquidity and the fact that they have diversified portfolios of financial assets.

Napoca, with has over half its assets placed in shares, saw its assets grow last month by 42% to 124 billion ROL (3.4 million euros).

At the end of last month, the total assets owned by mutual funds stood at 61 million euros, an 8% increase since the end of last year. There are now some 600 more investors since that time. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro