The last two years of crisis have prompted equity funds, considered to be the riskiest mutual funds, to be increasingly cautious with their stock exchange investments, a strategy explained by the fact that the pressure on yields is no longer significant and investors still lack the courage to take risks.
The over 5.2 billion-RON (1.21 billion-euro) assets of mutual
funds are over 70% invested in fixed-income instruments such as
bonds and bank deposits, while overall exposure to equity amounts
to just 6.4% of the assets, i.e. 337 million RON (80 million
euros), according to data supplied by the Association of Fund
Managers at the end of September.
The figures show mutual funds could be outranked by pension funds
over the coming months, which have 300 million RON invested in
equity, although they are considered to be much more
conservative.
The value of equity exposure can also be interpreted as a barometer
measuring the sentiment of investors holding their savings in
mutual funds. A value of 6% could indicate the fact that investors
have little hope that the equity market will rebound and prefer to
keep their money in safer assets such as deposits and bonds.