Investors pumped nearly R10-billion into unit trusts over the September quarter, pushing industry assets to R204-billion, equal to 4,4% of the JSE Securities Exchange’s market capitalisation.
According to figures from the Association of Collective Investments net inflows for the past three quarters totalled R24-billion, well ahead of the R18-billion for the whole of last year. The industry is on track for a record year of inflows if current trends continue.
The big losers were foreign funds, which suffered a net outflow of R1,3-billion over the past two quarters, though the outflow slowed by half in the September quarter. Outflows were also recorded by worldwide, regional and fund of funds.
Domestic funds attracted net inflows of R10-billion in the September quarter on the back of a resurgent local stock market. Investors down-weighted their foreign holdings in favour of fixed-interest and money-market funds, which attracted R1,5-billion and R6,1-billion respectively. A further R1-billion found its way into equity funds.
Money market funds account for about R75-billion or 40% of the industry’s total domestic assets.
The big winners among the equity funds were general, value and specialist funds. Financial and industrial funds attracted R110-million during the September quarter, up from zero the previous quarter. Asset allocation funds — which invest across classes such as equities, properties and bonds — recorded net inflows of R1,6-billion in the September quarter, up from R1,2-billion the previous quarter.
There was a swing out of domestic bonds as investors seemed to expect stronger growth from domestic equity funds over the next 12 months.