Funds domiciled in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) enjoyed net inflows of $2.5 billion in the first half of 2019 according to a report from financial markets data vendor, Refinitiv.
The report praises the GCC funds industry, which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE, for being able to achieve such inflows during a period of global volatility. This includes the US-China trade war, a possible euro crisis caused by economic problems in Italy and France and a global economic slowdown.
“The overall assets under management in the Arabian fund markets increased from $30.5 billion to $32.4 billion in 2019 year to date,” said Detlef Glow, head of EMEA Research at Lipper, Refinitiv.
“This increase was driven by overall net sales (+$2.5 billion), while the performance of the underlying markets had a negative contribution (-$0.6 billion) to overall assets under management.”
The bulk of GCC funds remains concentrated in Saudi Arabia, which accounts for $26.9 billion and 82.5% of assets under management, followed by Kuwait and the UAE which account for $3.2 billion and $1.7 billion respectively.
Money market funds remain the most popular investment vehicle with $20.2 billion of assets under management, followed by equity funds ($9.2 billion), mixed-asset funds ($1.2 billion), bond funds ($1.0 billion), real estate funds ($0.7 billion), and commodity funds ($0.002 billion).
Money market funds also enjoyed the biggest inflows (+$2.8 billion) with all but bond flows reporting outflows in the first half of 2019.
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