The Covid-19 induced market volatility has not deterred investors.
South African unit trusts attracted the highest quarterly investment ever recorded by the industry in one quarter in the three months to June.
According to statistics released by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa), investors put R88 billion into the local Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) portfolios. Instead of deterring investors, the market turmoil of mid-March seems to have encouraged those with funds to spare to take advantage of fallen share prices to beef up their investments.
Asisa said the R88 billion represents the highest net quarterly inflows on record. Over a 12-month period, the local CIS industry, which includes unit trusts, hedge funds, property and participation bonds, recorded R156 billion in net inflows by the end of June 2020, and as bad as 2020 has been, most of that money (71%) came in this year.
Even Asisa is surprised, said the association’s senior policy advisor, Sunette Mulder.
“The R88 billion in net inflows includes reinvested distributions of R20 billion, which means R68 billion was brand new money that had not been invested in CIS portfolios before,” said Mulder.
She added that half of the inflows in the last quarter – around R44 billion – was invested by individual investors.
Regarding assets favoured by investors, interest bearing portfolios attracted the most money, as investors ditched some equity classes – save for general equity portfolios – for these and money market accounts.
Compiled by Londiwe Buthelezi
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