Intermediate income – Newspaper Kommersant No. 226 (7427) dated 06.12.2022

In November, private investors sharply increased their investment in the opening of mutual funds (OPIF) with the payment of intermediate income. In a month they attracted over 6.8 billion rubles, and for the six months of the existence of this type of funds – almost 30 billion rubles. Investors are attracted by the possibility of receiving regular payments, which makes this product similar to bank accounts understandable to everyone. However, in December, in the absence of external shocks at the end of the year, according to managers, inflows can be fixed by many funds for which there are no income payments.

Despite the weak market conditions on the collective investment market, in November, open-end mutual funds with intermediate income payments showed a net inflow of RUB 6.6 billion. This result is almost twice higher than fundraising in October.

Such mutual funds provide for quarterly payments of income, which is formed on the basis of coupon and dividend income on the fund’s assets received during the reporting period.

The first fund of this type was formed by Alfa Capital only in the spring of this year (see “Kommersant” dated April 18). Since then, three other management companies have launched five funds, three of which are mixed, and one equity and bond fund each. For half a year, the net inflow into such mutual funds amounted to almost 30 billion rubles, which is three times higher than the volume of investments in all retail funds over the same period of time.

According to market participants, in such funds, investors are attracted by the opportunity to receive income by analogy with the accrual of interest on deposits and savings accounts. “Everyone wants to get a return on their investment right here and now. It was with this, for example, that there was such an interest in buying apartments for subsequent renting out, ”says Andrey Makarov, head of the sales department at Pervaya Management Company. Of course, in order to receive funds, a shareholder can sell part of the shares of ordinary funds, but this can often be associated with additional commissions. “The investor does not need to think about how many units to redeem, submit an application, wait for it to be fulfilled – in OPIF everything goes automatically with payments,” says Mr. Makarov. However, in such funds, tax deductions do not apply to payments if the fund shares are held for more than three years – personal income tax will be levied on all payments, which will be automatically withheld by the management company.

In general, in November, investors took funds from retail mutual funds. However, according to Investfunds, the net outflow from them amounted to about 2.6 billion rubles, which is almost 2 billion rubles lower than the previous month.

The average daily outflow in the reporting month dropped to 122 million rubles. from 213 million rubles. a month earlier. As in October, the main outflows go through open-ended funds, the net withdrawal of funds from which amounted to 2.16 billion rubles. against 3.8 billion rubles. in October. A little more than 400 million rubles were withdrawn from exchange-traded funds (BPIFs), a third lower than in October.

At the same time, outflows increased only in one category – bond funds – up to 3.8 billion rubles, which is 0.4 billion rubles. above losses in October. At the same time, the net outflow from more risky equity funds decreased from RUB 0.9 billion. up to RUB 0.63 billion The decrease in outflows from such funds occurred despite the weak growth of the Moscow Exchange index, which traded near the level of 2200 points throughout the month, ending November at 2175 points, which is only 0.4% higher than the values ​​of the end of October. “Although in November the stock market remained at the same positions as at the end of October, many companies returned to the practice of paying dividends,” Andrey Makarov notes. According to Viktor Bark, Director of the Asset Management Department at Alfa Capital Management Company, investors have begun to feel a little better about the risks of SVO and sanctions, seeing that at the level of the state of the economy and finances of companies, the situation clearly does not correspond to negative forecasts. But the lack of stable growth in the market prevents the return of investments in such funds, he notes.

In such circumstances, investors increased their investments in the most conservative money market funds.

In November, the net inflow of investments into such funds amounted to 1.14 billion rubles, which is almost one and a half times higher than in October. This group of funds attracts investors by the lack of market risk, as they earn mainly on short reverse repo transactions. Shareholders’ interest in mixed-type funds has also grown. Shareholders invested 0.9 billion rubles in such funds, while in the previous month investors were more actively withdrawing funds.

Managers expect a return of interest in stock and bond funds. According to Viktor Bark, the meeting of the Bank of Russia will be of great importance for the market, as a result of which, perhaps, there will be more confidence in the imminent continuation of the monetary policy easing cycle. This will put pressure on deposit yields and support bond prices. Even in the absence of signals from the Central Bank to continue lowering the key rate, interest in investments will recover, as current deposit rates do not meet the needs of investors. According to Ivan Lavrinenko, investment director at Rosbank Capital, as long as deposit rates are not double-digit, they will not be critical for the mutual fund market.

Vitaly Gaidaev