Investment fund assets decline by 0.3% m/m to HUF 2,542bn at end-October.

Investment fund assets decline by 0.3% m/m to HUF 2,542bn at end-October. Investment fund assets declined by 0.3% m/m to HUF 2,542bn at end-October, according to the latest statistics of the Hungarian Association of Fund and Asset Managers (BAMOSZ). The decline was triggered by net withdrawals of HUF 25bn, while HUF 18bn in yields only partially compensated for that drop. We note that in the previous 2 months investment fund assets sharply increased as economic agents put their money prior to the enactment of the capital gains tax hike from 0% to 20%. Money market funds remained leader as they accounted for 30.9% of the overall assets after increasing by 0.9% m/m. Real estate funds, which have enjoyed strong interest recently, accounted for 23.4% of the assets after booking 1.8% m/m decline. We note that the drop was triggered by large outflow of some HUF 14bn, while yields stood at HUF 3.2bn in October. The sharpest decrease was recorded by bond funds, down by 3.1% m/m to HUF 292bn, due to the combined effect of HUF 12bn in withdrawals and HUF 2.2bn in yields. Strong yields of the share fund assets paced 0.7% m/m increase to HUF 290bn in this group ( HUF 3.2bn in yields more than offset HUF 0.9bn withdrawals).