Mutual fund managed funds in January 2023 increased to IDR 512.76 trillion. This figure increases by IDR 4.57 trillion from December 2022 which was recorded at IDR 508.19 trillion.

Head of Product Development and Management at STAR Asset Management, Adri Firmansyah, said that the growth in funds managed by mutual funds in January 2023 was mostly contributed by fixed income-based mutual funds. “Fixed Income Mutual Funds grew by IDR 3.3 trillion this month. "Meanwhile, Protected Mutual Funds grew by 1.7 trillion," he said to Kontan, Friday (10/2).

Adri said that the increase in funds managed by mutual funds in January 2023 was caused by investors who were still interested in investing conservatively, even though restrictions on community activities had been removed.

"Investors' appetite is still for conservative investment instruments that tend to provide stable returns," he said. According to Adri, investors are still avoiding investment instruments that tend to be aggressive, such as stock mutual funds. "This can be seen from the decline in funds managed by Equity Mutual Funds, which fell by IDR 806 billion during January 2023," he said.

Adri revealed that Fixed Income Mutual Funds will still be a trend during 2023. "We see that Fixed Income Mutual Funds which contain a collection of bonds with a stable rate of return and have a conservative to moderate risk level will still be of interest to the public," he said.

According to Adri, the total funds managed by the STAR AM mutual fund itself will increase by IDR 130.5 billion in January 2023. The biggest increase, said Adri, occurred in the STAR Stable Income Fund mutual fund, namely IDR 33 billion. This is of course in line with the growth of AUM in a market dominated by fixed income-based mutual funds.

STAR Stable Income Fund is one of the superior mutual funds owned by STAR AM, where this mutual fund is able to provide an investment return of 0.74% during January 2023 or the equivalent of 9.25% a year. Adri admitted that this figure was greater when compared to income from banking deposits.

"The excellent performance of the STAR Stable Income Fund is what made retail investors from Mutual Fund Selling Agents interested in investing, so that its managed funds grew by IDR 130.5 billion in the last month," he explained.

Source: Kontan news portal (investasi.kontan.co.id)