The Thai mutual fund industry in the first nine months of 2016 grew by 12.7% to 4.58 trillion baht, with net capital inflows continuing in the third quarter, says Morningstar Research.
Net inflows in the third quarter alone were 119 billion baht, resulting in total net inflows for the first nine months of 434 billion. Indirect property funds and commodities have been the top returners so far this year.
Kittikun Tanaratpattanakit, senior analyst at Morningstar Research, said investors have shifted from mid/long-term bonds to short-term bonds. The former two bond types saw third quarter inflows of 97.3 billion and 60.8 billion baht, respectively.
Property indirect funds, whose returns rose 4.9% on average in the third quarter, were the top performers, with their year-to-date (YTD) return standing at 22.1%.
Gold funds, by contrast, appeared unchanged with a YTD return of 20.2%.
Meanwhile, Japanese, European and Chinese equity funds all improved in the third quarter, although they averaged YTD returns of -11.4%, -4.6% and -0.9%, respectively.
On the other hand, global high-yield bonds with fixed terms, mid/long-term bonds and large-cap equities were the top outflows among Morningstar fund categories in the third quarter.
Twelves new foreign investment funds (FIFs) were launched in the third quarter, while fund companies have shifted their focus from equity products to fixed income and allocation funds.
The entire FIFs market showed continued growth, adding net inflows of 27.4 billion baht in the third quarter, which brought its total net assets to 389 billion, a rise of 4.03% year-on-year.
The total net asset value for Thai equity funds slightly declined from 170 billion baht in the second quarter to 169 billion in the third quarter, although it still boasted 6.5% growth from 2015.
During the nine months period, total net assets for long-term funds and retirement funds also continued to grow.