According to Kommersant estimate, based on preliminary data of the National League of Governors (NLU), net inflow of funds into open mutual funds in April amounted to 700 million rubles. This results in twice the revenue in March (353 million rubles). The past month was the ninth in a row, when the funds record net inflow of shareholders’ funds. During this period, private investors have invested in mutual funds nearly 11 billion rubles. Customers stepped up investment in the pre-crisis years of 2005-2007 for a longer time, when for 20 months mutual funds received almost 66 billion rubles.
Traditionally, the main attraction was fixed in funds that invest in bonds. For a month they attracted almost 1.3 billion rubles. However, the influx of outsiders and recorded the last few months - funds of funds (in the amount of 230 million rubles.). A significant part of the funds (about 100 million rubles) was involved in funds that invest in assets linked to the price of gold and other precious metals. Of course, the result of funds is largely determined by the precious metal price dynamics. According to Bloomberg, from the year beginning gold has risen in price by 26% (in dollar terms), and the price for the first time since the beginning of last year, got close to the level of $ 1.3 thousand per ounce. "The main factor causing the increase of investor interest in gold, became the expectations of acceleration of dollar inflation, because the precious metal is seen by investors as an asset, which gives protection against inflation," said Head of Asset Management Department of Alfa-Kapital Viktor Bark.
Outsiders of the month were equity funds, from which investors withdrew more than 640 million rubles, which is three times higher than the result recorded in the previous month. Market participants explain the behavior of the shareholders with the reaching of Russian funds of indexes’ highs. Thus, the MICEX stock index reached a record high in April 1976.7 points, while for the month it added 5%. "Despite reaching record highs on the MICEX index, many investors try to lock profits, confirming the speculative mood", said Head of Sales and Marketing of Raiffeisen Capital Konstantin Kirpichev. According to Client Service Control Manager of MC Uralsib Karen Kesoyan, for "reversal" of investors’ moods towards the shares usually four to six months of steady growth of the market are needed."Even with a very good yield, shown by some funds in 2015, the overall demand for shares is constrained by the common sense of the ongoing crisis", says Mr. Kesoyan.
In May, market participants expect the conservation of inflows into mutual funds, which will also go mostly in bond funds. "Investors liked this tool and on a background of falling interest rates on deposits are increasingly beginning to use it", said Konstantin Kirpichev. According to Viktor Bark, excess of liquidity in the market encourages banks to lower interest rates on deposits - they simply do not need such expensive liabilities attracted from the population. At the same time high-quality corporate bonds still enable to calculate the rate of return of 10-11% per annum. As a result, the expected yield of bond mutual funds is higher than deposit rates, at a comparable level of risk and it stimulates the flow from conservative investors. "The only factor that is able to break this trend, may be increased volatility in the currency market, as it already happened in 2014," concluded Mr. Kirpichev.