Net inflows into Chinese bond funds totalled $13.8bn during the third quarter this year, according to a Broadridge Financial report.
It was a stark reversal from the previous quarter, when the asset class was one of the bottom 10 selling sectors in the region, with at least $1.6bn in net outflows.
Japanese and Chinese equity funds became the second and third most popular sectors in the third quarter, with net inflows of $8bn and $4.1 respectively, according to the report.
However, the inflows were largely driven by domestic investors. In the Chinese bond category, at least 90% of the inflows came from mainland investors, with the remainder coming from investors in Taiwan. But investors in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea took money out of the category.
Domestic investors in Japan also drove the inflows into Japanese equities, while those in Australia, Hong Kong, India, South Korea and Taiwan sold the asset class.
Q3 best-selling sectors by market ($m)
Source: Broadridge Financial
Top-selling new products
In terms of the top-selling newly launched products, BNY Mellon Investment Management’s Mobility Innovation Fund in Japan saw the highest net sales in the last 12 months, which gathered $2.8bn in assets, according to the report.
Launched in 2018 in Japan, the mobility fund holds 40-60 companies globally, which are focused on innovation in transportation and related technologies.
Just this month, the firm launched the same strategy to retail and accredited investors in Singapore and private banks in Hong Kong.
Of the top 10, seven were Japan-domiciled products, while the remainder were funds coming from China.
Source: Broadridge Financial
The number of fund launches in Asia-Pacific rose to 819 in the third quarter from 770 during the second quarter, while the number of closed funds fell to 556 from 645 over the same periods, the report noted.
In the 12 months to end-September, South Korea had the most product launches with 1,034.
Active funds big losers
Actively-managed funds had far steeper losses than passive products in Q3. Among the biggest losers were Indian rupee-denominated bond funds and allocation (multi-asset) funds, each with at least $6bn in outflows, the report showed.
