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What types of unit trust funds are performing these days?
A RECENT quarterly review of the top 10 portfolios in the
Personal Money Investment Game shows a predominance of index-linked funds
and bond funds, which seem to have raked in better returns than equity
growth funds for the quarter ended Oct 29, 2004.
The top portfolio for the quarter -- named 100% Risky
Portfolio -- gained 5.95% in the quarter, outperforming the Kuala Lumpur
Composite Index (KLCI)’s 4.07% gain in the same period. This portfolio is
fully invested in an index-linked fund.
Bond funds also emerge strongly in this last quarter ended
Oct 29, evident from the fact that five of the 10 top performing portfolios
for the Personal Money Investment Game are fully invested in bond funds.
Preferred bond funds include the Hwang-DBS Select Bond Fund.
The predominance of these funds can be attributable to
several factors. For one, sentiment in Bursa Malaysia has been very much
index-based in the past few months, hence the strong performance of index
funds in this period.
Also, the volatility in the local stock market in the
recent quarter has affected equity growth funds, hence bond funds have
brought in stronger returns for the period.
Another interesting point to note is that most of the
portfolios in the Top 10 list are mainly invested in funds with low or no
front-end loads (typically, bond and index funds have low service charges,
if any at all). This further goes to show the impact of fees on unit trust
investments.
Overall, the top 10 portfolios for the quarter made a gain
of 2.77%, with a total value of RM1.027 million.
As at Oct 29, 2004, the Personal Money Investment Game had
1,536 active portfolios with RM151.26 million invested in unit trust funds
virtually. On average, the portfolios recorded returns of -1.63% over the
period.
The Personal Money Investment Game offers prizes worth
RM250,000 in the form of unit trust fund investments sponsored by Hwang-DBS
Unit Trust Bhd, which currently manages nine funds with a total fund size of
about RM1.4 billion (as at end Nov 2004) including several award-winning
funds.
The game, which is run online for a year until July 29,
2005, is aimed at creating better awareness of unit trust funds as an
investment vehicle, and to help educate the investing public on how to
invest smartly by making informed decisions.
The game also aims to teach investing intelligence in
terms of fund selection via analysis, investment monitoring, and portfolio
asset allocation.
The Personal Money Investment Game is run by Personal
Money, The Edge’s monthly magazine on managing your finances,
with technical partner Signalpoint Sdn Bhd.
To read more about the quarterly review results of the
Personal Money Investment Game, look for the December 2004 issue of Personal
Money, now out at newsstands.
Information about the game and registration forms can be found in the
magazine, while more information about the game is available at
http://www.investmentgame.com.my/ |
