Economy

Investors Snub Equity Mutual Funds Despite Stellar Performance

Published

7 years ago

16/03/2018

By Quantitative Financial Analytics

The year 2017 will go down the annals of financial history in Nigeria as the year that mutual funds visited investors with all manner of blessedness.

On average, equity-based funds returned 29.03 percent with the likes of ARM Aggressive fund retuning 58.06 percent, Legacy Equity Fund, 53.74 percent, Coral Growth Fund, 52.79 percent and ACAP Canary Growth Fund recording the lowest performance among equity funds with a whopping 16.57 percent.

In the same likeness, ETFs which are predominantly equity based, returned 38.78 percent on average, with Vetiva Banking ETF recording 50.25 percent, New Gold ETF, 47.87 percent and Vetiva Griffin 30 ETF, 45.98 percent.

All the Equity based funds and ETFs made gains of not less than 16 percent in 2017.

Surprisingly, a flow analysis carried out by Quantitative Financial Analytics’ analysts indicate that investors did not take advantage of the equity market performance. Cash flow analysis is a way of measuring investors’ attraction or appetite for mutual funds.

While every category of mutual funds recorded net inflows in 2017, only the equity fund and ethical fund categories recorded net out flow.

In 2017, the total estimated inflow to the industry stood at approximately N249 billion while outflows amounted to N63 billion leaving a net inflow of N186 billion.

As usual, money market funds attracted the greatest inflow in the amount of N221 billion but suffered outflows amounting to N40 billion, resulting in a net inflow of N181 billion.

Bond or fixed income funds attracted inflows of N18 billion while suffering outflows of N11 billion, leaving it with net inflow of N7 billion. The other categories of Real estate funds, ETFs, and Balanced funds, all ended the year with net inflows but the story is different for equity and ethical funds.

In the year under consideration, equity funds received N4 billion of inflows but suffered outflows in the sum of N8 billion, amounting to a net outflow of N4 billion.

As at March 2, 2018, the total asset of mutual funds in Nigeria was N512 billion out of which only 6.5 percent (N33 billion) is in equity funds.

Though the trend does not seem to be reversing so far in 2018, there appears to be some attraction to equity funds.

Within the first two months of 2018, the industry attracted a total of N98 billion inflows with N14 billion outflows. While N89 billion of those went to money market funds which suffered N10 billion of outflows (net-flow N79 billion), equity funds attracted N2 billion inflows and suffered N0.9 billion in outflows leaving that category of funds with positive net flow.

The reason for the lack of appetite or likeness for equity mutual funds could be because investors are still reeling from the losses made from the market crash of 2009, but for how long, one may ask.

Another reason could be the risk disposition of investors. While money market funds may not be yielding as much in bull markets, they tend to be less risky than equity funds and as such attractive to risk averse investors.

Yet another reason could be lack of data and information. In the Nigerian mutual fund industry, it is easy to get information on money market yields but not so easy to get such information on other categories of mutual funds.

This issue is even exacerbated by some blogs or articles on fund performance being thrown out there. Some of those blog/articles tend to overstate the performance of money market funds while understating that of other categories of funds because such blogs/articles ignore the effects of cash flows on performance calculations.

By lumping cashflows into the fund, they run the risk of interpreting changes in funds’ net asset value as due solely to performance. This erroneous interpretation tends to punish funds that suffer net outflows while rewarding those with net inflows.

It is important however, to note that past performance does not guarantee future performance so much such that the stellar performance of equity funds in 2017 does not indicate that they will perform as well or better in the future, so invest with caution.

Economy

Okitipupa Plc, Two Others Lift Unlisted Securities Market by 0.65%

Published

2 hours ago

14/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.65 per cent gain on Friday, December 13, boosted by three equities admitted on the trading platform.

On the last trading session of the week, Okitipupa Plc appreciated by N2.70 to settle at N29.74 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N27.04 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc added N2.49 to end the session at N42.85 per unit compared with the previous day’s N40.36 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 50 Kobo to close at N16.30 per share, in contrast to the preceding session’s N15.80 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalisation added N6.89 billion to settle at N1.062 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.055 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) gained 19.66 points to wrap the session at 3,032.16 points compared with 3,012.50 points recorded in the previous session.

Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors increased by 171.6 per cent to 1.2 million units from the 447,905 units recorded a day earlier, but the value of shares traded by the market participants declined by 19.3 per cent to N2.4 million from the N3.02 million achieved a day earlier, and the number of deals went down by 14.3 per cent to 18 deals from 21 deals.

At the close of business, Geo-Fluids Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with a turnover of 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with the sale of 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units sold for N5.3 million.

In the same vein, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 108.7 million units for N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with a turnover of 297.3 million units worth N5.3 billion.

Economy

Naira Trades N1,533/$1 at Official Market, N1,650/$1 at Parallel Market

Published

3 hours ago

14/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by N1.50 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,533.00/$1 on Friday, December 13 versus the N1,534.50/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.

The local currency has continued to benefit from the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this month.

The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including the rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.

The system instantly reflects data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.

Market analysts say the publication of real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system has lent support to the Naira in the official market and tackled speculation.

In the official market yesterday, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling by N12.58 to wrap the session at N1,942.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,954.77/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N2.44 to close at N1,612.85/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,610.41/€1.

At the black market, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday by N30 to sell for N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,680/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely positive as investors banked on recent signals, including fresh support from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, as well as interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Ripple (XRP) added 7.3 per cent to sell at $2.49, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 3.5 per cent to $728.28, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to trade at $1.11, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.3 per cent to $122.56, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $101,766.17, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $0.4064, Solana (SOL) soared by 0.7 per cent to $226.15 and Ethereum (ETH) advanced by 0.6 per cent to $3,925.35, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.

Economy

Index Gains 0.63% as Value of Nigerian Exchange Crosses N60trn

Published

3 hours ago

14/12/2024

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

For the fourth consecutive trading session, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed higher on Friday by 0.63 per cent on sustained renewed buying pressure.

Apart from the energy and industrial goods sectors which closed flat, every other sector ended in the green territory, according to data obtained from the bourse.

Business Post reports that the insurance index appreciated by 1.52 per cent, the banking space improved by 0.63 per cent, and the consumer goods counter expanded by 0.46 per cent.

As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 617.47 points to settle at 99,378.06 points compared with the preceding day’s 98,760.59 points and the market capitalisation went up by 375 billion to close at N60.242 trillion, in contrast to Thursday’s closing value of N59.867 trillion.

The volume of transactions on Customs Street yesterday grew by 11.13 per cent to 544.2 million shares from the 489.7 million shares transacted a day earlier.

The value of transactions increased during the session by 49.30 per cent to N10.6 billion from N7.1 billion and the number of deals went up by 1.93 per cent to 8,464 deals from the 8,304 deals posted in the previous trading session.

The busiest equity for the trading day was Japaul with the sale of 71.7 million units valued at N158.0 million, eTranzact exchanged 70.7 million units worth N477.5 million, Tantalizers sold 57.3 million units for N101.2 million, FCMB traded 33.0 million units worth N297.3 million, and Universal Insurance transacted 27.1 million units valued at N9.6 million.

A total of 36 stocks ended on the gainers’ chart, while 15 stocks finished on the losers’ table, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.

The trio of Aradel Holdings, Ikeja Hotel and Caverton gained 10.00 per cent each to trade at N550.00, N8.80, and N1.98, respectively, as Africa Prudential rose by 9.87 per cent to N17.25 and Golden Guinea Breweries soared by 9.64 per cent to N8.64.

On the flip side, Austin Laz lost 10.00 per cent to close at N1.62, ABC Transport crashed by 8.00 per cent to N1.15, Royal Exchange slumped by 7.69 per cent to 60 Kobo, Secure Electronic Technology plunged by 5.26 per cent to 54 Kobo, and The Initiates crumbled by 4.26 per cent to N2.25.