Equity 18 May 2021, 9:15am

Mixed funds attract most investments in April

Portfolio

Hungarian investment funds managed HUF 7,154 in assets at the end of April. Of the major categories, mixed funds attracted the most fresh capital this year, while only equity funds have performed above 5%. Below are five graphs of the most interesting data about Hungarian investments funds.

Stock funds above 5% return…

According to statistics from the Association of Hungarian Investment Fund and Asset Management Companies (BAMOSZ), equity funds brought the highest return to investors between January and April, performing above 5% so far this year largely as a result of strong stock exchange indices.

Of the major categories, mixed funds placed second with nearly 2% return, followed by property funds with 0.7%.

All other categories remained in the red in the first four months of the year as the low yield environment does not favour money market and bond funds, while the latter also have to face inflation concerns.

As for absolute-return funds, it should be noted that excluding OTP Supra, the category would be neck and neck with mixed funds in terms of returns. (OTP Supra is the biggest absolute return fund, so its performance largely determines that of the entire category.)

Commodity market funds are nearly 5% in the red this year, probably due to the weak performance of funds tracking the price of gold, which has done very poorly so far this year.

…but mixed funds attract most investment

Despite the good performance of equity funds, mixed funds attracted the most fresh capital in April, nearly HUF 40 bn compared to HUF 13 bn in stock funds. Net sales were also positive in bond, closed, commodity market, property and money market funds, while absolute return, derived and capital protected had negative net sales. In the case of the latter, two funds have matured, explaining the outflow of capital.

Looking at the January-April period, net sales of mixed funds were outstanding, collecting HUF 161 bn in fresh capital in the first four months. Equity funds ranked second with HUF 62 bn and bond funds third with HUF 23 bn.

The investment fund market managed to continue to grow slightly in April, with total assets managed exceeding HUF 7,154 bn. The sector crossed the HUF 7,000 bn threshold in March.

This means total assets grew in April despite negative overall return, thanks to HUF 60 bn in fresh capital. According to the BAMOSZ, more than HUF 200 bn in fresh capital flowed into investment funds in January-April, while returns contributed HUF 56 bn to growth.