Mutual funds investors make 1% above inflation in H1

The 21 funds on the Romanian market concluded the first half of the year with average growth for their fund shares of 5.1%, according to the National Union of Collective Placement Bodies (UNOPC). Inflation for the same period was 4.1%.

Depositing money with a bank at the beginning of the year would have yielded 7-8% over the first six months. However, fund investors have the benefit of being able to withdraw their money at any time without losing their accrued gains, only having to pay a repurchase fee (if any). Interest rates on the monetary market almost halved over the first six months of the year, meaning that a bank deposit for a full year will now yield 7-8%.

Funds managed to slightly outpace inflation again last month, with an average growth of 0.43% compared with inflation of 0.3%.

The top performer among all the funds in the first six months was KD Maximus, which is managed by KD Investments of Slovenia and which saw a 12.8% increase in the fund share. KD Maximus benefited from the strong growth of stocks on the Bucharest Stock Exchange over the first two months of the year and then started to reduce its exposure on these securities. BCR Dinamic, which is run by BCR”s specialist company, applied a similar policy and ended the first half with 10.9% growth.

The third leading fund was Omninvest, which is managed by SIRA, with 10.7% for the first six months, though its share of stock investments remained relatively constant early in the year at two thirds of the total.

The top performing funds last month were again equity funds due to the fluctuating trend for shares on the Stock Exchange. Other funds that invested in listed securities lost money, however.

The BET index, which gauges the performance of the most important shares on the market, rose by 3.2% in June, after having reached the same value at the end of May as in late 2004. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro

Survey

Romania ranks second in Europe for foreign investment in terms of number of jobs created, thanks to the investment projects conducted in 2004, a survey by Ernst & Young shows. The survey, which rates the attractiveness of European countries, was conducted during March-April 2005 by polling the top managers of the most important multinational companies around the world. In Romania 13,760 jobs were created as a result of foreign direct investment in 2004, ranking Romania 7th in Europe from this point of view. The United Kingdom came in first with 30,535 new jobs created, followed by Poland with 22,546 and France in third place with 21,858. The survey shows that Europe remains the main destination for foreign investors. The top three countries where foreign investors created an average of over 250 new jobs through investment projects were Turkey, with an average 409 new jobs, Romania, 362, and Slovakia, 289. Unexpectedly, the countries with smaller foreign investment were France, with an average of 51 new jobs, Sweden, 62, and the UK, 63.