Mutual funds invested only RON240 million in the stocks of listed companies.
The 68 mutual funds in Romania had invested RON6.1 billion in state paper, mostly of Romania’s Finance Ministry by the end of September. The funds’ investments in treasury bonds reached a record high this year, almost three times the level in 2008.
The funds’ greater appetite for state paper is because of the higher inflows of cash into the money market and bond funds, which specialize in such investments, as well as because of the more frequent government paper issues by Finance Ministry in the last few years.
Out of the 68, bond fund Erste Bond Flexible made the highest investments in treasury bonds, RON2.6 billion. Erste Bond Flexible is the largest mutual fund in Romania with RON4.6 billion assets and has seen net inflows of about RON1 billion from investors this year, using most of the money to buy bonds.
Second largest investor is bond fund ING Bond, RON900 million out of its RON1.01 billion assets. Third largest is Raiffeisen Ron Plus, with RON1.87 billion in assets, 45% of which allocated to treasury bonds.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)