Retail investors’ interest in UIFs growing: Q3 results
For the first time since the beginning of the year, unit holders’ funds have flowed into retail unit investment funds (UIFs). The number of individual unit holders increased over the quarter by 1.3% to 8.1 million people. These data are included in the Review of Key Indicators of Unit Investment Funds and Joint-stock Investment Funds for Q3.
Retail investors’ interest has a lot to do with the maturity of deposits that were opened at high interest rates in spring and now their attractiveness has declined. Another reason is the return of investors with previous experience in securities trading to the market.
However, the inflow of unit holders in the third quarter was significantly below the quarterly average growth rate in previous years. Retail UIF returns remained negative, but their dynamics improved. The weighted average return of exchange-traded UIFs was −6.8%, and that of open-ended UIFs was −23.3%. The negative impact on the performance of funds, especially open-ended UIFs, was due to the equity market contraction in September and a deterioration in the dynamics of credit markets due to economic uncertainty.
According to the review, the returns of retail funds managed by smaller management companies often outperformed that of funds managed by larger companies.