Net inflows into retail mutual Funds in July exceeded RUB 16 billion, this is the maximum result during a pandemic. However, investors are still behaving quite cautiously, choosing primarily conservative bond funds and reducing the amount of investment in equity funds.In July, the activity of shareholders in the market of collective investments has increased markedly. According to Investfunds, net inflows into mutual funds amounted to 16.3 billion roubles, which is 10.5% higher than in June, the best monthly result for the period of the pandemic. However, the values of the beginning of the year the figure still lags behind. In January and February a net inflow of funds of private investors was $ 26-29 billion. According to the head of sales Department of “Sberbank asset Management” Andrey Makarov, the main demand is from experienced customers who tried to use the decline of quotations for investments at favorable levels. “However, for some customers the situation on the stock markets was a deterrent. As a rule, clients who first go through a period of turbulence”,— says the expert.More active market recovery prevents seasonal decline in business activity. According to the Director “the alpha-the Capital” Irina Krivosheeva, usually in the summer months there is a lull, investors are waiting for signals from the reporting season, issuers, and macroeconomic data for the first half. This is compounded by the holiday season, which the pandemic is contracted until July-August.According to associate Director in the insurance ratings and investment companies “Expert RA” Diana Kovalenko, overall attendance of the banks could not return to decoratinga level: “During the isolation investors were actively used by remote services and significantly shifted to purchase products online”. By the end of July the company “Sberbank asset Management” through digital channels it is 65% of the borrowings in Opivy. In “Raiffeisen Capital” attracting through online channel amounted to 35%. According to CEO of “VTB Capital Investments” Vladimir Potapov, the share of online channels in terms of attracting funds in June and July returned to the levels of the beginning of the year.The restoration of popularity of investment products is associated primarily with conservative bond funds. The total investment in them for the month amounted to 10.5 billion rubles, which is almost 2 billion rubles. higher than in June. Decreased demand for stock funds in July, they received only 2.9 billion and RUB 0.8 billion RUB below the previous month.According to General Director of “Raiffeisen Capital” Olga Suminoe, excessive demand of previous months was due to the fact that the shares fell heavily in price and people hurry to buy them now quotes largely restorewere all segments. “Demand for bonds is, in principle, a more permanent and traditionally observed in the reduction of interest rates on deposits. Also bond funds are a tool that preserved the tax exemption for the tenure of over three years, which makes it more attractive in comparison with traditional deposits,”— said Mrs. Sumina.In the coming months, market participants expect growth to attract retail funds. Important for the market will be the upcoming U.S. presidential election, ahead of which traditionally increases the volatility in world markets, and might also increase sanctions pressure on Russia. However, as noted by Irina Krivosheeva, more and more investors are considering funds as a long-term investment, so even with the election of the President of the United States “at the end of the year you can count on the growing interest in investments in mutual Funds”.Vitaly Gaydayev
