Equity funds lost up to 60% of their investors' money this year, after they bet on banks and financial investment companies (SIFs), whose shares were dealt a heavy blow by the crisis in the financial sector.
The losses of equity funds in the first nine months range between 30% and 60%, depending on the exposure that they were prepared to face on the stock market. As a result, the worst slumps were those of the equity funds that kept 80% of their assets on the stock market.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange was severely hit by the international financial crisis this year, with the BET-XT index of the 25 most liquid listed companies, which includes SIFs, losing more than 61% of its value.
Almost 16,000 investors had units in equity funds at the end of August, while another 50,000 had invested with balanced funds, whose exposure to the capital market is lower.
Raiffeisen Romania Actiuni, managed by Raiffeisen Asset Management, lost 59.5% in the first nine months of the year, and its exposure to the stock market stood at 90% of its assets. Napoca, an equity fund managed by Globinvest saw a 59.3% decline since the beginning of the year, investing 95% of its assets in shares. Another fund that bet on a rebound of the market and invested 80% of its assets in shares is BT Maxim, managed by BT Asset Management, which lost 51.7%.
The Raiffeisen fund, launched on the market last year, had 144 investors at the end of August, while Napoca and BT Maxim, which have been on the market for longer, have 1,600 and 1,900 investors.
According to European classifications, an equity fund invests more than 66% of its assets in shares. On the local market the number of equity funds that reduced their exposure to shares, for fear of stock market corrections and to protect investors from slumps, has been on the rise, Some of the least exposed funds, below 5
