Illustrative image (Source: VNA) The VN-Indexclosed last year up 14.8 percent over December 31, 2015. This is the generalprofitability of the market but actual earnings depended on the portfolios ofinvestors.
Open-endfunds were among few traders who beat the growth of the Index in 2016.
SSISustainable Competitive Advantage Fund (SSI-SCA) reported the highest growthrate in net asset value (NAV) of 24.3 percent as of January 5, 2017, its bestresult since it began operating in 2014.
The fund,managed by SSI Asset Management Co Ltd, focuses on investments in companieswith sustainable competitive advantages and fixed income assets.
Accordingto the fund’s November report, four top holdings of the funds accounted for33.2 percent of its total portfolio, including steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG),13.7 percent; Dabaco Group (DBC), 8.7 percent; dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), 5.9percent; and Coteccons Construction JSC (CTD), 4.9 percent.
Except Vinamilk which declined 2 percent, the other three stocks posted biggains last year with price rises of between 19 percent and 50 percent, of whichHPG and DBC increased 50 percent and 41 percent, respectively by the end ofDecember.
The secondmost profitable fund in 2016 was a fund managed by VietFund, Vietnam SecuritiesInvestment Fund (VFMVF1), with NAV growth of around 23 percent last year, asquoted by Bloomberg.
Its topholdings also included large-cap stocks like Vinamilk, software producer FPTCorp (FPT), PetroVietnam Nhon Trach 2 Power JSC (NT2), Dabaco Group and Hoa PhatGroup (HPG).
The othertwo funds which outperformed the VN-Index were Vietnam Blue Chips Fund (VFMVF4)a 20 percent, and VCBF Blue Chip Fund (VCBF) at 19.5 percent.
Six of the10 Vietnam-based open-end funds also performed well last year, though theirgrowth was below the VN-Index expansion, with NAV increases of between 10percent and 17 percent.
Theaverage NAV growth of these 10 funds reached 17.5 percent in 2016.
Thesefigures have shown that investing in open-end funds brought higher returnscompared to depositing in banks or self-investments. In fact, not manyindividual investors can outperform the market indices as the factors such asallocation of shares, holding period or time of purchase/sale decide profitmargins of investors.-VNA
