Equity funds saw 9.2 million RON in net amount withdrawn in October, the largest volume of this year, while withdrawals from balanced funds stood at 14.1 million RON according to the monthly report of the Fund Manager Association. Moreover, the equity funds in the first ten months of the year witnessed net withdrawals of 15.3 million RON, while investors in balanced funds withdrew a net amount of 28.6 million RON.

"It was obvious that significant amounts would be withdrawn from funds exposed to the stock market, considering the performance of the Stock Exchange last month. Investors incurred heavy losses, which is why they took their money out of funds," said Razvan Rusu, investment manager of Aviva Investors management company.

Financial Investment Companies (SIFs), top investment destinations because of their high liquidity for equity and balanced funds fell 56.4% in October alone. The BET index, which includes the ten most liquid companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, dropped 32.6%, while the BET-C, which reflects the performance of all the listed companies on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, lost 32.9% in October.

Record withdrawals in October took the assets of equity funds back to where they were three years ago, 118 million RON, even though the number of funds today is double the number in 2005. The eight equity funds ended 2005 with net assets worth 72.2 million RON, only to see their assets increase fast to 204 million RON in 2006, and 398 million RON in 2007.

"We can be talking about a new beginning for the equity funds after the unprecedented declines that occurred this year," Aviva Investors' Rusu continued. Besides equity funds, balanced funds went down, too, ending the first ten months of the year with 193 million RON in assets, below the 240 million RON at the end of 2006. At the other end are the monetary and bond fund