Swiss fund market increases on performance gains

Basel, 19 April 2016 – In March 2016, the volume of assets placed in the investment funds covered by the statistics compiled by Swiss Fund Data AG and Morningstar stood at around CHF 867 billion, an increase of CHF 11.3 billion or 1.3% month-­on-­month. The net outflows totaled around CHF 750 million.

The volume of assets entrusted by investors in Switzerland to the fund industry came to CHF 867.1 billion in March 2016 (February 2016: CHF 855.8 billion). "The major central banks again adopted a very accommodative stance in March, and the financial markets were also upbeat, with the key stock market indexes posting clear gains month-­on-­month. This impressive rally led to a corresponding increase in fund volumes. As in the previous two months, investors made net withdrawals, albeit to a lesser extent," said Markus Fuchs, Managing Director of the Swiss Funds & Asset Management Association SFAMA. By comparison, the figures for selected indexes in March 2016 were as follows (February in brackets): Dow Jones 7.08% (0.30%), S&P 500 6.60% (-­0.41%), EURO STOXX 50 2.01% (-­3.26%), and SMI -­0.46% (-­5.72%). The CHF
lost 0.79% against the EUR, but gained 3.62% against the USD.
Net outflows totaled around CHF 750 million in March 2016. Money market funds suffered the heaviest outflows (-­CHF 1.2 billion), followed by alternative  investments (-­CHF 363.5 million), and asset allocation funds (-­CHF 152.0 million). Meanwhile, equity funds (CHF 479.1 million) and commodity funds (CHF 320.3 million) enjoyed the strongest inflows. There were no changes in the ranking of the most popular asset classes: equity funds 39.97%, bond funds 32.28%, asset allocation funds 12.25%, money market funds 6.98%.