Funds: "Dry spell continues"

Buyers' strike in fund trading - only money market and some sustainability funds continue to do well. Real estate funds are almost exclusively sold, with prices on the stock market much lower than those reported by the fund companies.

19 October 2023.?FRANKFURT (B?rse Frankfurt). Caution is also the order of the day in fund trading in view of the many negative factors.

"War in the Middle East, inflation, high interest rates, recession - all this is causing concern and putting the brakes on any recovery," explains Jan Duisberg , who trades funds for ICF Bank. Fund trader Matthias Pr?ger of Baader Bank speaks of "lousy mood" with regard to the geopolitical conflicts. "The positive impulses are simply missing." The DAX has lost around 800 points since mid-September, and today, Thursday, the index is only just holding above the 15,000-point mark.

Only clear favorites: Money market funds. "We see extremely high turnover on the buy side," reports Pr?ger. The Aberdeen SLF Euro Fund (LU0090865873) and Deutsche Institutional Money plus (LU0099730524) are among the favorites.

Immofonds: "Stock market prices show skepticism".

There continues to be very high turnover in real estate funds - however, here is mostly sold. "The phase of revaluation continues," notes Duisberg. On the sales lists are, for example, Grundbesitz Global (DE0009807057), Grundbesitz Europa (DE0009807008), UniImmo Deutschland (DE0009805507) and UniImmo Global (DE0009805556). Duisberg also reports significant sales for the previously popular HausInvest (DE0009807016) and Fokus Wohnen Deutschland (DE000A12BSB8), which has long been spared from charges.

Prices on the stock market are much lower than those reported by fund companies. "This is often due to the rules for the appraisals that the fund companies have to prepare on a regular basis. Where there are no sales, there is no reasonable market value," "Finanztip" editor-in-chief Hermann-Josef Tenhagen recently remarked on spiegel.de. "The prices on the stock exchange already show the skepticism of the stock market players towards the nominal prices of the fund companies."

ESG funds in demand

The equity funds are also dominated by sales, as Pr?ger notes. For example, Fondak with German equities (DE0008471012) and FPM Funds Ladon European Value with European value stocks (LU0232955988) are affected, but also the globally investing DWS Verm?gensbildungsfonds (DE0008476524). Exception: the Metzler Aktien Deutschland (DE0009752238). That is bought against the trend. Also unpopular are funds with Asian shares. Baader Bank reports outflows from UBS China Opportunity (LU0067412154) and First State Greater China (GB0033874107).

However, some ESG funds are doing well, such as the DKB Nachhaltigkeitsfonds Klimaschutz (LU0117118124), Duisberg reports. This fund focuses primarily on companies with future-oriented business models that support the Paris climate goals. The focus is currently on Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Novo Nordisk and Danaher. Since the beginning of the year, the fund has scored with a plus of 17 percent, although over a three-year period it has "only" gained 5 percent p.a. Also sought-after: Allianz Global Sustainability (LU0158827195). This also focuses on companies with sustainable business practices. Currently, Microsoft, UnitedHealth, Visa, Adobe and Alphabet are the heavyweights. The fund is up 12 percent year-to-date and 8 percent annually over three years.

Gold mine funds sold, bond funds attracting more attention

The price of gold has recently risen sharply and, at US$1,947 an ounce, is no longer far from the US$2,000 mark. Shares in gold producers are benefiting. On the stock market, however, this is not reflected in purchases of corresponding funds, as Pr?ger reports. The BGF World Gold Fund (<LU0171305526X>) is rather sold, as well as the BGF World Mining (LU0075056555) with shares of mining and metal companies. Only HANSAgold (DE000A0NEKK1), which primarily tracks the gold price with gold ETCs, is popular, he said. Both sides are played, according to Duisberg, at the Amundi Aktien Rohstoffe (DE0009779884) with shares of commodity companies.

According to Duisberg, trading in bond funds has also picked up somewhat. Most bought the Flossbach von Storch Bond Opportunities (LU0399027613), inflows and outflows are equal for the DWS Euro-Bonds (Medium) (LU0036319159), Allianz Euro Rentenfonds (DE0008475047) and S-BayRent Deka (DE0008480773). Mixed funds also continue to see some turnover, such as Ethna-Aktiv (LU0136412771).

Active/Passive Barometer: Active funds not quite so bad for once

Incidentally, active funds fared somewhat better than usual compared with their passive counterparts in the twelve months to June this year: 36.6 percent of active equity managers did better than their passive counterparts, according to the latest Morningstar Active/Passive Barometer. In the previous two surveys, the figures were only 33.6 and 30.4 percent. "Typically, active managers' success rates are higher in mid-cap and small-cap equity categories than in large-cap categories," noted Morningstar's Dimitar Boyadzhiev. Of active bond managers, as many as 63 percent outperformed the passive alternative, up from 55.5 and 46.2 percent previously. Over the long term, however, passive funds continued to outperform: on average, only 17.1 percent of active equity managers and 23.1 percent of active fixed income managers managed to beat their passive alternative over the ten-year period ending June 2023.

By Anna-Maria Borse , 19 October 2023 ? Deutsche B?rse AG