Sharia-compliant funds gathered RING1.1bn ($250m) in the first quarter of 2017, which accounted for 27.7% of all net fund inflows. The funds’ share of new inflows was significantly lower than during most of the past three years. In particular during the first three quarters of 2016, it hovered above 60%, coming down to 28.1% in the fourth quarter.
Public Mutual, whose sharia-compliant funds, with RING26.5bn ($6.1bn) AUM, account for 63.5% of the market, gathered RING410m ($95m) of new assets.
The firm’s sharia-compliant Public Ittikal and Public Asia Ittikal funds added RING497m ($115m) net new assets and its two Asean Dividend funds added net RING251m ($58m). Public Mutual’s islamic fixed income and allocation (mixed-asset) funds saw outflows.
Quarterly net inflows into Malaysian mutual funds
Data: Morningstar, in Malaysian ringgit, excluding money market funds
Net flows increase
Malaysian investors added RING3.99bn ($920m) to their investments in mutual funds (Islamic and conventional) in the first quarter of 2017, the highest quarterly net inflow since Q2 2015, according to data from Morningstar.
Equity funds added RING1.6bn ($380m), allocation (multi-asset) funds attracted RING1.2bn ($280m) and fixed income funds, excluding money market, gathered RING1.1bn ($260m) in net new flows.
Share of AUM in Malaysian sharia-compliant funds
Data: Morningstar, AUM in Malaysian ringgit, excluding money-market funds
Public Mutual came out as the biggest asset gatherer, with RING1.07bn ($250m) net new assets.
Affin Hwang gathered RING824m ($191m), split among its equity, fixed income and allocation funds.
CIMB-Principal added RING685m ($158m) in net new assets despite suffering RING202m ($47m) outflows from its equity funds.
The firm’s Asia Pacific Dynamic Income fund lost RING301m ($70m) in assets, the highest net outflow among mutual funds in Malaysia in the first quarter.
The firm’s Institutional Bond Fund 2 was the quarter’s top asset gatherer, with RING614m ($142m) in net new assets.
AmInvestment suffered high asset outflows , mostly in its equity funds. The firm’s Asia Pacific Equity Income saw net outflows of RING110m ($25m) and its Precious Metals Securities lost RING73m ($17m) of assets.
RHB was the top asset gatherer in allocation funds, having attracted RING590m ($136m), to the RHB Asian Income Fund.
