New Funds Bring Hefty Flows in Asia

Among new fund highlights for the month: Nomura Japan Undervalued Low-priced Equity Fund in Japan took in over $0.8 billion, and China’s E Fund Healthcare Sector Equity Fund absorbed nearly $0.6 billion. Lion Global Gold Fund, the first gold fund in China, attracted $0.5 billion in new money.  

Japan had $5.08 billion in net inflows for the month, with Bond High Yield ($3.11 billion), Real Estate ($2.52 billion), and Bond Asia Pacific ($1.93 billion) the categories with the highest inflows, SI data showed.  

In India, net inflows were $6.22 billion, with Money Market funds drawing in the bulk of that amount – $5.97 billion.  

Net inflows totaled $1.15 billion for Hong Kong, with Equity Asia Pacific drawing in the bulk of that total ($1.03 billion).  

Indonesia favored Equity Asia Pacific funds ($356M), and posted a net inflow of $384M in January.  

Korea saw a net outflow of $4.22 billion for the month. According to SI data, the Mixed Conservative ($261M), Equity Sector/Other ($92M), and Equity North America ($27M) categories were the only ones to post a net inflow for the month.  

In Taiwan, mutual funds posted a net outflow of $454M in January. Bond Emerging Markets funds drew in the most assets, at $148M, while Money Market funds were the least favorite, posting a net outflow of $708M.  

Bond Asia Pacific funds were January’s favorite in Singapore ($29M). However, mutual funds in total posted a net outflow of $113M, with Equity Global ($-47M) and Bond Global ($-40M) funds leading that movement.   

An outflow of $646M from Money Market funds contributed to the net outflow of $735M in Thailand. The same was true for Malaysia in January, which saw a total net outflow of $295M, and a net outflow from Money Market funds of $292M.