The youngest equity funds on the market were also the most exposed to adjustments on the stock exchange over the last few months, with the three open-end investment funds that launched operations this year posting negative yields of up to 23% since entering the market.

So far, the biggest challenge for fund managers has been to get a negative yield below the 30% adjustment of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Investment manager Investica was the first manager to launch an open-end investment fund this year. Investica Altius, which invests on the stock market, has posted a 6% negative yield since its launch.

"The launch of equity fund Investica Altius overlapped with the decline of the stock market. The fund has registered a 6% negative yield thus far, while the depreciation of the market amounted to around 30% from August through to November," says Leonard Visan, general manager of SAI Investica.

Next came Raiffeisen Asset Management (RAM), which at the end of August launched Raiffeisen Romania Actiuni that has posted a 23% negative yield so far. At the end of September, RAM launched another fund on the market, Raiffeisen Confort, which generated a 4% negative yield for its investors between September 25 and November 27.

"The decline of Raiffeisen Confort fund was quite low compared to the market, because the investment strategy considered a reduction in the investments in shares, and an increase in the volume of assets invested in bonds when the market was going down. As for the negative yield of Raiffeisen Romania Actiuni, the equity fund entered a dwindling market," says Mihail Ion, chairman of Raiffeisen Asset Management, adding capital increases also had a negative impact on yields.

"It's been a while since we haven't seen one-digit yields on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Stock market adjustments led to promotional share prices,"