Cash continues to flow into Thailand funds

For the first nine months in 2021, the Thailand fund industry reported a total net inflow of THB132.2bn.

During the last quarter, equity funds contributed the most net inflow at THB38.1bn, but it was offset by the fifth consecutive bleed in money market funds of THB29.1bn. The net inflow into equity funds for the first nine months of 2021 was THB 197.2bn.

Even though China equities were hit by a regulatory crackdown and saw a slowdown of net inflows, it is still the leading asset class with total inflows of THB78.5bn since the beginning of the year.

Morningstar also saw investors moving back to riskier assets, as evinced by money market funds’ net outflows of THB 123.3bn for the year.

When compared with the quarter before, mid/long-term bonds and domestic short-term bonds reported the biggest jump in inflows by 38.9% and 16.7% respectively, leading to a 1.3% growth in the net asset value (NAV) quarter-over-quarter for fixed-income funds.

Thai funds’ total NAV, excluding closed-end, REIT, infrastructure, and ETFs, was THB4.2trn, which flat from the previous quarter.

The equity funds’ NAV was also flat from the previous quarter at THB1.5trn as most of the inflows were offset by the negative return during the third quarter.

Nonetheless, equity large-cap is the category leading the industry with 15% of market share, followed by money market funds and short-term bonds.

Domestically, KAsset continues to lead as the largest fund provider in the country, and it also gained the most net inflows so far this year. But, its net asset was dropped to THB962.8bn from THB1trn.

On the other hand, the second-largest fund provider SCBAM, recorded the largest outflows year-to-date from allocation and fixed-income funds.

Foreign Investment Funds (FIFs)

After an exceptional performance in the first half of the year, the total asset value of FIFs was relatively flat in the third quarter.

Global equity surpassed China equity to be the most popular, with growth of 7.3% quarter-over-quarter.

Although there was a net inflow into China equity funds, their NAV dropped by 10.7% quarter-over-quarter due to the regulatory crackdown.

The feeder fund market was valued at THB782.9bn at the end of September, up 1.7% from the previous quarter. JPMorgan continues to lead with a NAV of more than THB80bn, but UBS dropped a place to last as almost all of its available funds are China equity.