Mutual Investment Funds: which were the best performers in 2022?

However, this trend was reversed around the middle of the year, when the rate of accrual of CER instruments dropped and some fears about the sustainability of the investment began to be raised. debt in pesos. Let us remember that, in June, the CER bonds they collapsed, they demanded disbursements for $2 billion from the Central, which had to go out and buy to contain the collapse.

“Thus, the financial regulator set a floor for prices and generated liquidity mechanisms that made it possible for various investors to avoid disarming positions and further pressure on prices,” MegaQM highlights.

The best performing mutual funds

Consequently, the first 4 months of the year were very positive in terms of flow, with investors reaching the FCI with the aim of positioning itself in ERC instruments and in T+1 funds. Between May and June these flows began to be reversed and these funds went mainly to the Money Market, seeking to position itself in assets without market risk. However, over the months, the debt market in pesos began to recover.

In this context, Paula Gándara, CIO of Adcap Asset Management, points out that “the funds that earned the most in the year were those of variable incomeregistering a return close to 120%”, while mentioning that, in fixed income, the best performing were the CER funds, with a return close to 80%, and the most conservative funds, called Money Market, rose 62% .

Ignacio Morales, Financial Business Analyst at Wise Capital, a global investment advisory agent, has a similar view, who maintains that “the FCIs with the highest performance in 2022 were those of Argentine shares, which rose 137%”. Thus, it stands out that the valuations of the companies were at historically very low levels, and they were able to recover, in the year, a part of their value.

And, in this sense, the economist Federico Glustein points out that “funds made up of local market shares registered increases of up to 180% year-on-year”. He mentions the cases of Delta Recursos Naturales, Galileo Acciones or SBS Acciones Argentinas, which showed a very positive trend, reflecting the dynamics that the Merval showed in 2022, with growth of 142% per year in pesos and 42% measured in dollars. .

The analyst indicates that “this is due to the fact that, despite the enormous volatility of the Argentine macroeconomics, there are sectors, such as gas and oil derived from Vaca Muerta and the cattle rancher, which, due to the dynamics of international commodity and energy prices They gave the vitality and strength to sustain the increase of Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos (BYMA)”.

The short-term FCIs, the best performers

However, capital market experts note that the year that has just ended closed with flows channeled almost exclusively to asset management instruments. short term liquidity.

Lucas Yatche, Head of Strategy and Investments at Liebre Capital, highlights in this sense that, “among the assets in pesos, the CER Funds were the most attractive for investors and, above all, the FCI with the shortest durationwhile the longest part obtained lower yields”.

Also noteworthy is the performance of some dollar-linked funds at certain times of the year, whose demand is usually linked to the search for coverage when the probability of discrete devaluation increases. And, from MegaQM they point out that, “given that the current economic team has made an effort to mitigate this risk, they have currently lost attractiveness”, but they do not rule out that they can recover it next year because, in the first part of the year, if the drought deepens, it could lower the potential supply of dollars.

Likewise, as Gándara points out, with respect to 2023, surely, “the electoral calendar will dominate the local market scene and there may be greater interest in the most conservative funds, such as the money market, in the search to preserve investments in the face of the possible increase of volatility”. And it is that, according to Mauro Cognetta, from Global Focus Investments, “the big investors are the ones that move the market, they try to cover against possible movements economic and invest in pesos”.