Best Performing Mutual Funds in January 2008

The following summarizes and ranks the performance of mutual funds in the Philippines during the first month of the year.

Although the rate of return is a good measure of performance, other factors such as consistency of returns and amount of risk exposure should be considered before investing in a “good” mutual fund.

Overall, mutual fund companies were hammered in January 2008 due to lingering concerns of US recession brought about by the subprime mortgage problem. Equity Mutual Funds were badly hit, with all of them registering negative returns during the first month of the year. The trend follows the movement of the Philippine stock market which posted a 9% decline in value from the start of the year.

Balanced Funds were not spared, albeit two companies managed to post positive returns. Even Money Market Funds — supposedly safe havens for short-term investors — were affected by the downtrend, with two funds incurring negative return.

Without further ado, here’s the list of top mutual fund companies in the Philippines for January 2008 in terms of absolute returns. To learn more about mutual fund investing, visit the Mutual Funds section of this site.

Performance of Mutual Funds in the Philippines, January 1-31, 2008

Equity Funds (primarily invested in Peso equity securities)

• United Fund – (3.56%)
• ATR KimEng Equity Opportunity Fund – (8.09%)
• Philequity PSE Index Fund – (8.15%)
• Sun Life Prosperity Phil. Equity Fund – (8.72%)
• Philequity Fund – (9.6%)
• Philippine Stock Index Fund – (9.82%)
• Philam Strategic Growth Fund – (10.05%)
• First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund – (10.57%)

Balanced Funds (primarily invested in Peso debt and equity securities)

• First Metro Save and Learn Balanced Fund Inc. – 1.11%
• First Galleon Family Fund – 0.01%
• MFCP Kabuhayan Fund – (5.37%)
• Sun Life Prosperity Balanced Fund – (5.94%)
• Optima Balanced Fund – (6.46%)
• Philam Fund, Inc. – (8.62%)
• GSIS Mutual Fund – (8.78%)

Foreign Currency-denominated Balanced Funds

• Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund – (0.64%)

Bond Funds (primarily invested in Peso debt securities)

• Cocolife Fixed Income Fund – 2.59%
• Philam Bond Fund – 1.43%
• ALFM Peso Bond Fund – 1.24%
• Prudentialife Fixed Income Fund – 1.08%
• First Metro Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund – 1.07%
• Sun Life Prosperity GS Fund – 0.68%
• Ekklesia Mutual Fund – 0.64%
• Sun Life Prosperity Bond Fund – 0.64%
• Philam Managed Income Fund – 0.19%
• Legacy GS Fund – (0.16%)

Foreign Currency-denominated Bond Funds

• ALFM Dollar Bond Fund – 0.67%
• Grepalife Fixed Income Fund Corp. – 0.59%
• Philequity Dollar Income Fund – 0.52%
• Philam Dollar Bond Fund – 0.07%
• Grepalife Dollar Bond Fund – 0.06%
• ALFM Euro Bond Fund – (0.14%)
• MAA Privilege Euro Fixed Income Fund – (0.71%)
• MAA Privilege Dollar Fixed Income Fund – (0.96%)
• Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Abundance Fund – (1.22%)

Money Market Funds (primarily invested in short-term Peso securities)

• Philequity Money Market Fund – 1.01%
• Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund – 0.18%
• Legacy TD Fund – (0.16%)
• ATR KimEng Money Market Fund – (0.75%)

See other reports on the Performance of Philippine Mutual Funds:

1. Best Philippine Mutual Funds (2007)
2. Equity Mutual Funds (2006)
   
3. Balanced Mutual Funds (2006)
   
4. Bond Mutual Funds (2006)
   

All figures taken from the Investment Company Association of the Philippines website (www.icap.com.ph).