Mutual fund investors continue to show caution

About Bt138 billion net moved into Thai mutual funds during the period.
Kittikun Tanaratpattanakit, senior research analyst at Morningstar Thailand, said that about Bt163.155bn was net invested in foreign investment funds (FIFs) and investors sold domestic assets worth about Bt24.87bn.
Most investors favoured assets in other countries rather than in Thailand, he said. 
Overall, investors preferred highly safe assets or made diversified investments, reflecting their caution.
Kittikun pointed to fixed-term foreign investment bonds, and global bond funds -– particularly global income and short-term bond funds – as the most popular since late last year.
However, concerns about defaults on bills of exchange (B/Es) persist. The net asset value of high-yield bonds dropped to less than Bt90bn, compared to a record high of Bt520bn in 2015.
“Almost all are funds which have low to medium risk, reflecting investors’ concerns on the investment situation,” Kittikun said. 
Fund companies readjusted their strategies, switching from term funds to funds for accredited investors. He said he expected second-half investment through mutual funds to be similar to the first half. 
In the first six months of 2017, almost all groups of funds made positive returns, and those with satisfactory returns were all invested in foreign stocks, led by Asia Pacific ex-Japan Equity’s 15.46 per cent return, China Equity’s 14.07 per cent and Global Health Care’s 13.42 per cent.
However, funds in energy commodities suffered a negative return of 19.14 per cent and those in indirect domestic property posted a negative return of 1.64 per cent.
Thailand’s equity large cap and small/mid cap funds remain highly volatile, providing average returns of 3.50 and 1.76 per cent, respectively, Kittikun said.