Mutual funds with investments on the Stock Exchange continued to rebound in August, seeing yields ranging between 1.7% and 5.3%.
In the wake of these increases, part of the funds went back into the black compared with the beginning of the year, with the growth continuing in early September. The main growth drive was again the good performance of SIFs, as well as Transelectrica's stock becoming available for trading. Most funds with placements on the capital market subscribed to Transelectrica's public offering, managing to derive gains of around 50% from this investment once the company started being traded on the Stock Exchange in late August.
The SIF index, BET-FI, in August added around 8.7%, while the BET index, of the major companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, lost 0.2%. SIFs continue to be the base component of diversified and equity funds' portfolios despite many managers' recent bet on portfolio diversification, which cut down the share of SIF interests in the total assets.
Intercapital, managed by Certinvest, was the top-performing fund in August, witnessing fund unit growth by 5.3%. The fund has one of the highest exposures to SIFs, with placements in SIF stock accounting for some 45% in its net assets at the end of August. At the same time, the fund held stock in Transelectrica weighing around 1.8% in its portfolio.
"The yield we got in August is mainly due to the fact that we raised our bet on SIFs. I believe SIFs have the potential of matching and even going beyond the record highs they reached in February by yearend," stated Razvan Rusu, fund manager with Certinvest. In the first 8 months of this year, Intercapital posted a negative yield of -1,3%.
"The market has overcome the difficult period and I believe it will further follow a positive trend. I believe mutual funds are going to top the average yield of
