Return of Balanced Mutual Fund Surges: Banking Stocks Become Leading Products

Tuesday, 09/02/2010 00:00 WIB

Irvin Avriano A.

for Bisnis Indonesia

Return of Balanced Mutual Fund Surges: Banking Stocks Become Leading Products

JAKARTA: Harvestindo Istimewa balanced mutual fund booked a whopping return of 523.6% in January, skyrocketing from minus 83.52% in 2009.

The product return has bolstered the average balanced mutual fund return to 6.16%, surpassing an average return of 2.33% recorded by equity mutual funds.

The Composite Stock Index (IHSG) also booked a positive return of 3.02% in January.

Data by PT Infovesta Utama showed the return of Harvestindo Istimewa surpassed all of other mutual funds covering 113 balanced mutual funds and 173 other open-end mutual funds.

The average equity fund return is booked by 60 products, while the average fixed-incme fund return is contributed by 103 products.

Open-end mutual fund is a capital market investment product whose unit can be bought and topped up by investors any time. The fund covers equity fund and fixed-income fund.

Open end mutual fund is different from structured or protected mutual fund, whose unit can only be bought or redeemed at certain times.

President Director of PT Harvestindo Asset Management Teuku Helmy Azwari, which oversees Harvestindo Istimewa, explained the calculation of net asset value (NAB) of the product had been changed based on suggestion from Bapepam-LK.

He explained several small-medium enterprises (SMEs) financed by the product found their payment stalled, leading to a negative account last year.

Equity products

AVP Marketing of PT Syailendra Capital Anastasia Pritasari Ilham disclosed two of the company's products, Syailendra Equity Opportunity Fund and Syailendra Balance Opportunity Fund, which were ranked among the five largest return-booking funds, had an advantage of investing in the banking sector.

Senior Analyst at Infovesta Utama Rudiyanto disclosed it was hard for investment managers to book big returns in January.

"Market players found it hard to do trading. It indeed depends on the fund management." (Bisnis/iaa)