This spring, when the bourse rose by 15%, the manager of OTP Asset Management decided to change the investment strategy and turn the OTP Balansis balanced fund into a bond fund, so that since March he started to gradually liquidate the stakes in the fund’s portfolio.
Balansis’ stock exposure revolved around 40% of assets in February, and reached zero in late June, with the 10.86% return posted in the first six months being derived from the liquidation of the bourse exposure ahead of May corrections, though.
The fund’s return is way above the performance of bond funds, which gained 3% on average in the first half of the year.
The Star Next balanced fund, with a 9.25% return, and the index fund Certinvest XT Invest, with an 8.38% advance in the first six months, come second and third.
The top performers in the category of conservative funds, with no stock exposure, were Raiffeisen RON Plus money-market fund, with a 3.62% return, and the BCR Obligatiuni bond fund with 4.10%. Euro-denominated conservative funds brought investors returns of as much as 2.55% in the first half of the year, a peak reached by BRD Euro Fond.
The steepest losses were posted by Omninvest equity fund managed by SIRA, which dropped by 13.5%. Euro-denominated Audas Piscator lost 8%, the second largest loss in the industry, followed by Omnitrust diversified fund with a 7.5% loss.