Thailand
Thailand: Foreign investment funds see 27.5% rise in 2020
Foreign investment funds (FIFs), excluding term funds or short-term fixed-income funds, recorded a 27.5% growth from 2019 with total net asset value of 840 billion baht, accounting for 21% of the Thai mutual fund market, an increase from around 10% in 2016.
Chinese equity funds recorded the highest net asset value of 120 billion baht in 2020, a 185% increase from the previous year, with an average return of nearly 19%.
Chayanee Juengmanon, senior research analyst at Morningstar Research Thailand, said Krungsri China A Shares Equity A (KFCHINA-A) was championed as the largest Chinese equity fund as it is a feeder fund with investment in UBS Asset Management, the asset management firm which currently owns the largest share of China’s equity master fund market.
Other UBS Chinese equity funds available in Thailand, such as private funds, also reported good average returns of about 33%.
Global equity funds were another asset showing notable growth of about 140% from 2019 with total net inflows of 50 billion baht in 2020.
Global bond funds also grew by 28.3% from 2019 with 100 billion baht net asset value in 2020.
The fund saw net inflows of 2.8 billion baht in the last quarter with total net inflows of 22 billion baht last year.
The Property Indirect-Flexible fund was the third largest fund traded last year with a 22.7% drop in net asset value from 2019, as a result of a 10.3% decrease in returns last year. It also saw total net outflows of 14 billion baht.
“In the last quarter of 2020, FIFs’ performance were overall better than the previous quarters as many groups of funds still showed positive average returns,” said Ms Chayanee.
For Asia, emerging markets like Asean bourses also saw signs of recovery in 2020.
Large-cap equities of Thai equity funds showed a solid recovery with an average return of 13.7% during the last quarter of 2020.
However, despite the pickup in the last quarter, large-cap Thai equities’ total returns for 2020 were still negative at -10.4%, with Stock Exchange of Thailand total returns of -5.2%, due to a huge negative return of -21% during the first three quarters.
In 2020, there were 31 newly-established Chinese equity funds, out of the existing 40 funds.
The new funds saw net inflows of 31 billion baht while net inflows for both new and old funds totalled almost 60 billion baht.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2057807/foreign-investment-funds-see-27-5-rise-in-2020