Authorized and recognized unit trusts registered for sale in Singapore attracted net inflows of SGD1.8bn ($1.38bn) for the second quarter of 2024, marking an 88.9% increase from the first quarter’s inflow of SGD 975.3m, according to a report by Morningstar.
Every asset class registered positive net flows except for convertibles. Fixed income led the pack with inflows of SGD 906.94m, followed by money market funds with SGD 622.2m, with equity rounding off the top three with SGD 261.16m, said Arvind Subramanian, senior analyst, manager research, who presented the report on a webinar on Thursday.
For Singapore, most of the fixed income categories saw a reversal of fortunes when compared with the previous quarter, having posted a net outflow of SGD 244.76m in the first three months of this year.
Global fixed income continued to lead the categories in terms of net inflows at SGD 741.46m, compared with SGD 1.16bn in the first quarter of 2024.
Asia bond funds had inflows of SGD 125.47m and although emerging markets fixed income had SGD 2.51m worth of funds redeemed in the first quarter, the category attracted inflows of SGD 65.65m in the second quarter. Europe fixed income also had an improvement with SGD 2.26m of new funds attracted, while US fixed income and other bond suffered net outflows of SGD 7.85m and SGD 20.05m respectively.
For money market funds, Asia money market posted inflows of SGD 498.21m. This was followed by money market miscellaneous at SGD 110.64m, with US money market coming in with SGD 13.35m.
Among equity funds in Singapore, global large-cap blend equity and large-cap growth equity received the most interest, with inflows of SGD 118.33m and SGD 131.2m respectively, followed by other equity at SGD 110.22m. This positive direction was despite worldwide outflows of $113.68bn in the second quarter from US equity funds.
Greater China equity received the least interest with only SGD 11.42m recorded, followed by Singapore equity at SGD 16.01m, and global equity income at SGD 20.89m.
At the other end of the spectrum, SGD 82.37m of funds exited Asia ex-Japan equity, followed by sector equity technology with SGD 51.99m, and Asia Pacific ex-Japan equity at SGD 43.6 m.
Meanwhile, allocation funds collectively registered a modest inflow of SGD 52.42m in the second quarter, compared with net outflows of SGD 61.28m for the first quarter. The allocation miscellaneous category continued to see the most outflows of SGD 268.55m; moderate allocation, aggressive allocation, flexible allocation all saw net inflows, along with commodities broad basket and global macro funds.
