In the second quarter this year, the Thailand fund market’s total net asset value (NAV) contracted 7% quarter-over-quarter, to THB3.8trn ($99.2bn), according to Morningstar.
Meanwhile, the total NAV as of the end of the first quarter was THB4.1trn.
The latest net outflows in 2022 were THB116.1bn, meaning that THB201.4bn have diverted away from Thai funds for the first half of the year overall.
Fixed income funds reported the largest outflows (THB225.4bn) within the first six months of the year, with the top four asset classes that have seen the largest outflows all being bond funds.
Short term bond funds lost THB108.4bn in the first six months this year, followed by mid/long term bonds (THB47.1bn), foreign investment bond fix term funds (THB 37.7bn) and flexible bond funds (THB32.1bn).
On the other hand, money market funds saw the greatest net inflows in the first six months of the year, at THB59.0bn.
As investors are in risk-off mode, net assets in the assets class hit THB700bn, becoming the largest asset class for the second consecutive quarter.
Despite being the fifth asset class with the largest outflow, large cap equity remained the second largest asset class in Thailand with THB589bn.
China’s gradual recovery
With China slowly emerging from months of lockdowns, more money is flowing into China equity, the data presented.
In the second quarter, THB6.4bn flowed into the asset class, the majority of activity being in June, while half-year net inflows were THB11.8bn.
China equity funds returned 3.2% on average, reversing the -15.5% return in the previous quarter.
Yet China equity’s net assets dropped 7.4% from the end of 2021 to end of June.
Global equity funds’ net assets remained the Thai investors’ favourite with THB13.3bn in net inflows during the first half of the year.
Owing to a return of -26.8%, global equity funds net assets had the largest contraction rate at 23.4% in the first half of the year, Morningstar data showed.
Foreign investment funds, excluding fixed-term funds, saw net assets decrease by 19.7% from the end of 2021, dropping 12.3% quarter-over-quarter to THB948.trn.
Net outflows for the first half of this year were THB16.9bn.
Thailand fund flows H1 2022
| Asset class | Net inflow (THB bn) | Asset class | Net outflow (THB bn) |
| Money market | +59.0 | Short term bond | -108.4 |
| Bond Fix Term | +20.4 | Mid/long term bond | -47.1 |
| Global equity | +13.3 | Foreign investment bond fix term | -37.7 |
| China equity | +11.8 | Flexible bond | -32.1 |
| Vietnam Equity | +10.5 | Equity large-cap | -23.0 |
| US Equity | +8.6 | Foreign investment miscellaneous | -21.9 |
| Aggressive allocation | +0.9 | Global bond | -20.3 |
| Roll over bond | +0.5 | Conservative allocation | -8.5 |
| Moderate allocation | +0.4 | Europe equity | -5.0 |
| TH sector focus equity | +0.2 | Miscellaneous | -5.0 |
