Investments by individuals in mutual funds in the first eight months of this year rose by 28%, while mutual funds' total assets went up by around 52% during this period, according to the data published by the National Union of Collective Placement Bodies (UNOPC).
In other words, the funds' asset growth was largely triggered by legal entities that invested in funds. These included banks that invested to support the new funds their own specialised companies had launched.
Individuals' investments in mutual funds in late August weighed only 37.5% in total assets, namely 52.8m euros, compared with a level of 41m euros at the end of last year.
The average investment by individuals in mutual funds stood at 718.5 euros/investor at the end of last month, from 589.3 euros/investor at the end of December. Rising placement/investor is only partly due to fund performance given that increases most funds have reported since the beginning of the year did not exceed 10%, with some even posting losses. The number of individual investors advanced by 5.6% in the first eight months, to 73,500.
Placements attracted by funds were mainly directed to higher-risk, yet possibly higher-yield funds. These are equity and diversified funds.
Under the circumstances, stocks came first in terms of funds' favourite placements. While early this year banking deposits were the favourite placement alternative, with 43% of funds' assets, against the 20% in listed stock, last month the weight of stock in funds' assets leapt to 34%, compared to the 31% held by deposits. On the other hand, due to the lack of new government bond issues for more than a year, the weight of government bonds in funds' portfolio has halved in the last eight months, getting to 7% at the end of the year.
Total assets of the entire fund market in August exceeded 140m euros, compared with 92m euros a
