Translated material
In a team on shares
Bank deposits flow into mutual funds
The popularity of collective investments among Russians continues to grow, despite the stock market cataclysms. This is evidenced by a study published yesterday by the National League of Managers. Thus, in the first quarter of this year, the influx of shareholders into funds of all categories amounted to more than 85 thousand, or 64.3%. Market participants attribute this to increased public confidence in non-traditional financial instruments and an increase in their income. Some analysts believe that many depositors of domestic banks are gradually withdrawing money to mutual funds. This is confirmed by a Rosstat study, according to which the growth rate of bank deposits slowed down - according to the results of the first four months, the difference with last year’s similar indicator was 3.4 percentage points.In the process of preparing the NLU study, data were received from 83 management companies on 306 formed mutual funds - this is 77% of all mutual funds. The total number of accounts opened in Russian mutual funds as of April 30 is 218,929. Since the beginning of the year, the net influx of shareholders (the increase in the number of accounts whose balance exceeds zero) amounted to 85,712 accounts, or 64.3%.
It is believed that the mutual fund industry began at the end of 1996. According to NLU research, from that moment until May 2006, the number of shareholder accounts increased by more than 207 times. If we do not take into account the outflow during the crisis years of 1997-1998, then we can say that the influx of new investors into the collective investment industry was steady and smooth. But the rise of the stock market in 2005 sparked a surge in interest in mutual funds.
According to preliminary data, in the last quarter of last year the number of non-zero accounts of market shareholders in all mutual funds increased by more than 65%, and in the first quarter of 2006 - by almost 47%.
More than half of the market of shareholders in the first quarter of this year was accounted for by funds managed by three companies: 21% of the market was controlled by Troika Dialog (44,621 accounts), 19.6% by Uralsib (41,529 accounts) and 10.7% KIT Finance (22,585 accounts). More than 10 thousand accounts were opened by market shareholders in mutual funds managed by Alfa Capital Management Company (10,035 accounts, or 4.7% of the market). Management Company of the Bank of Moscow is slightly behind it, occupying 4.6% of the market. The Brokercreditservice company has 8,111 accounts, that is, 3.8%. The most modest companies included in the NLU ranking, Pan-Trust and Trend, can boast of only two accounts.
The leaders in the increase in the number of accounts of market shareholders were funds managed by Uralsib Management Company. They opened 20,005 accounts in the first quarter. Troika Dialog funds took second place, adding 16,501 accounts. In third place are mutual funds "KIT Finance" (6,366 new accounts).
The most retail mutual fund in Russia as of the end of the first quarter was the open-end equity fund Troika Dialog - Dobrynya Nikitich - the total number of accounts in this fund is 23,643. LUKOIL - Prospective Investment Fund managed by Uralsib has 17 097 accounts. Another brainchild of Uralsib - LUKOIL - Fund One - has 12,169 accounts. “Troika Dialog - Dobrynya Nikitich” is also the most popular among Russian investors. Over four months, the net increase in the accounts of market shareholders in it exceeded 9.5 thousand units.
The popularity of financial instruments with non-fixed income has generally been growing recently. But the share market for most citizens seems technically complex and unreliable, which cannot be said about the collective investment market. It is possible that the increase in mutual fund clients is associated with a general increase in household incomes, because, as experts note, as a rule, the last of the money is not invested in mutual funds.
Yesterday, the Federal State Statistics Service reported that the volume of bank deposits attracted by credit institutions in rubles and foreign currency amounted to 4,104.2 billion rubles as of May 1, 2006, having increased by 7.3% since the beginning of the year. At the same time, by May 1, 2005, banks had attracted 2,936 billion rubles, and the volume of deposits since the beginning of the year has increased by 10.7%. Thus, compared to the same period last year, in the first four months of 2006, the growth of bank deposits decreased by 3.4 percentage points. According to Rosstat, as of May 1, the share of bank deposits attracted for a period of up to a year decreased over the month by 0.3%, amounting to 23%; for a period of one year or more - by 0.4%, up to 60.3%. Sberbank's share in the total volume of savings of individuals as of May 1, 2006 amounted to 54.2%, having decreased by 0.3% compared to the beginning of 2006.
According to NLU expert-analyst Alexey Pushkov, in the first quarter of 2006 there was an influx of bank depositors into mutual funds, who decided to abandon conservative and not particularly profitable deposits in favor of mutual funds that were gaining popularity.
All of the above information demonstrates statistics before the collapse of Russian stock indices. However, Mr. Pushkov notes that the collapse of the Russian stock market did not particularly frighten mutual fund investors. “Depositors are already accustomed to the fact that a sharp decline is followed by a correction, and they are calm about this. Moreover, it is clear that the continuous growth of shares, which was in 2005, could not continue forever,” he says. In addition, the specialist notes, mutual funds are not as sensitive to fleeting market sentiments as, for example, blue chips, so their fate in the near future can be called very successful.