Spanish investment funds achieved an average return of 1.78% in May and 7.68% over the past 12 months, with assets under management increasing by €9.7 billion.
Jefferies Analysis
May saw another strong performance, with assets under management (AUM) in Spain rising by 2.1% month-on-month, representing an increase of €9.7 billion, mainly due to positive market effects (1.78%), driven by modest fund inflows (€1.9 billion). In the current environment, investors continued to favour equities over money market funds.
BBVA posted the best performance in May, with assets under management rising by 2.5% month-on-month and inflows of €300 million, whilst Santander saw only a 1.5% increase month-on-month in assets under management and inflows of around €100 million, losing 24 basis points of market share so far this year.
Assets under management rose by €9.7 billion in May, following the strong performance recorded in April, thanks to the positive market effects, with a slight additional boost from capital inflows recorded during the month. Assets under management in investment funds managed by the bank itself stood at €475 billion in May, representing a 2.1% increase compared with the previous month (or €9.7 billion) and a 5.4% rise so far this year.
Of the €9.7 billion increase in May, €7.8 billion (81%) is attributable to positive market effects, whilst the remaining €1.9 billion is due to fund inflows.
By fund type, fixed-income funds and international funds remain the most significant categories (39% and 33% of total funds, respectively). Equity funds recorded the best month-on-month performance, with a 6.1% increase, whilst money market funds saw a 1.7% decline in assets under management.
By banking group, CaixaBank accounts for 23% of total assets under management in the system (market share stable in May), with growth in assets under management in line with that of the system for the month (a 2.1% month-on-month increase). BBVA’s assets under management rose by 2.5% month-on-month, with its market share rising by 5 basis points to 13.1%.
Santander increased its assets under management by 1.5% month-on-month in May, losing a further 8 basis points of market share in May (and 24 basis points so far this year). Unicaja showed strong month-on-month momentum, with assets under management rising by 2.4% month-on-month. Bankinter grew almost in line with the system. (Chart 1).
Investors continue to favour equity funds
BBVA recorded particularly strong inflows in May. In that month, investment funds domiciled in Spain recorded inflows of €1.9 billion. By fund type, equity funds remained the investors’ favourite, with inflows of €1 billion during the month. Fixed-income and global funds also recorded positive inflows, whilst money market funds recorded outflows of €500 million. In terms of performance by banking group, BBVA recorded the strongest inflows in May, with €300 million, closely followed by Unicaja and Ibercaja, with €200 million. Santander, CaixaBank and Bankinter also recorded slight positive inflows.
The market performed well in May, driven by equities. Global funds also posted a solid return. Investment funds achieved an average return of 1.78% in May and 7.68% over the last 12 months. In May, emerging market equities recorded the best returns (10.93%), followed by Japanese equities (9.78%), US equities (5.28%) and Spanish equities (3.02%). Money market funds performed the worst (0.17%). Over the last 12 months, emerging market equities have been the best-performing funds, with a return of 53.13%, followed by Japanese equities (45.78%) (Chart 4).
