The net asset value (NAV) of Thailand's fund industry increased by 0.8% to 5.1 trillion baht at the end of last year, with net inflows in equity funds but net outflows in fixed income funds.
Equity funds attracted 216 billion baht in net inflows last year, while investors cashed out a net 151 billion from fixed income funds largely due to the higher interest rate trend, according to Morningstar Thailand.
Equity funds were a popular choice among investors, as seen by the fact that the final quarter of 2018 marked the sixth quarter of the net inflow streak.
Equity funds valued 1.1 trillion baht at the end of last year, up 7.6%, and the growth could be attributed to the strong inflows.
Long-term equity funds' (LTFs) net inflows last year at 30.6 billion baht was in line with the average net inflows over the past five years and net inflows to the funds reached last year's peak at 32.3 billion during the October-to-December quarter.
LTFs' NAV at the end of 2018 declined by 3.8% to 382 billion baht.
The benchmark SET index ended last year, sliding 10.8% to 1,563.88 points.
Net inflows to equity funds excluding LTFs and retirement mutual funds (RMFs) amounted to 83.3 billion baht in 2018.
Morningstar's senior research analyst Chayanee Juengmanon said the still wild swings in the stock market and the upward interest rate trend were to blame for the small net inflows in mutual funds last year.
She said 161 funds (excluding fixed-term funds) were rolled out last year and equity funds remained the most popular with 104 funds launched.
In 2017, 89 equity funds were launched.
The 161 new funds drew net inflows of 104 billion baht, of which 52.8 billion were put into equity funds.
According to a breakdown of 104 new equity fund types, there were 25 global equity funds, 22 equity large-cap, 10 Chinese equity funds, with other equity categories making up for the rest.
There were 19 fixed-income funds launched in 2018, down from 23 in the previous year. Of the total 19 funds, 12 were global bond funds.
RMFs saw net inflows of 25.7 billion baht in 2018, while those with equity portfolios experienced net inflows of 20 billion.
The total NAV increase for RMFs was 2.9% to 262 billion baht last year.
Although fixed income funds value dropped 17.7% to 1.7 trillion baht in 2018, they continued to be the largest segment with 44.2% of the total fund value.
Foreign investment funds, excluding fixed term funds, had total NAV of 572 billion baht last year. Net outflows amounted to 43.1 billion in 2018, of which 10.7 billion was pulled out during the final three months.
Total net asset value of Thailand mutual funds excluding closed-end funds, real estate investment trusts, infrastructure funds, and exchange-traded funds fell 8.7% to 3.8 trillion baht last year.