Top mutual fund gains only1.8 percent in two months

Strong stock market corrections during the first two months of the year have affected the mutual funds ranking, with monetary and bond funds occupying the top positions at the end of February, after some funds registered performances of up to 1.8 percent.
Equity funds, the last few years’ top performers, only managed to generate negative yields for their investors in the first two months of 2008, although corrections were lower than the ones on the Stock Exchange.
Equity funds attracted more than 40 million euros from investors last year, while balanced funds posted net inflows worth 24 million euros, after investors were attracted by the prospect of gaining more interest than the levels offered by bank deposits. However, the declines at the beginning of this year almost completely cancelled out the profit funds had generated last year, whilst those that bought fund units in mid 2007 are now experiencing losses that, in some cases, exceed 30 percent.
On the other hand, investors have generally avoided monetary and bond funds during the last few years, due to their low yields, compared to bank deposits.
Two months into 2008, Orizont bond fund (managed by Certinvest) is the number one fund with RON denominated investments, after it posted a 1.8 percent increase.
The top five mutual funds are monetary and bond funds, which managed to preserve the investments of their investors and generate positive yields, after they were shielded from stock market corrections. At the other end of the ranking, the equity funds posted a unit decline of up to 20.2 percent in 2008, while the main stock exchange indices lost more than 22 percent in January and February.
“In times of extensive corrections, it is best that an individual investor is exposed to the capital market through a mutual fund; this way they make sure their investments are diversified and, implicitly, that risks are reduced,” says Radu Hanga, general manager of BT Asset Management.
The shares listed on the Stock Exchange that most equity funds bought registered a more than 20 percent decline in the first two months of the year. BRD shares fell by 28.2 percent, TMK Artrom and Condmag shed 30.8 percent and 33.8 percent, Rompetrol Rafinare fell 26.6 percent, while Biofarm lost 25.9 percent. The SIFs were among the losers too, after they dropped 20 to 25 percent.
Stock Exchange corrections also continued yesterday, when the BET index lost 2.6 percent and SIFs fell 3 percent on average, due to the international decline caused by bad news concerning the United States economy.