Profitable year for fund savers - only one fund fell in 2019

- An important explanation for the large upturn is that the starting point was low as the stock markets declined during the fall of 2018, says Jonas Lindmark, head of analysis at the fund analysis company Morningstar.

The only equity fund that is marketed in Sweden and which has backed in 2019 is called Tundra Pakistan and has dropped by almost 18 percent.

One conceivable explanation for the fund's poor performance is the jerky Pakistani economy. In a New York analysis on December 10, the country's economy is compared to an aircraft that takes off and then crashes twelve times in a row.

But as I said, all other funds have gone up.

- You have been able to throw an arrow to choose a fund, says Frida Bratt, savings economist at the bank Nordnet, to TT.

Jonas Lindmark mentions the categories IT, USA and Swedish small companies as strong cards in 2019.

New for 2019 is that Russian funds have received a revenge and performed well.

- The pessimism around investments in Russia has decreased, but the Russian market is fluctuating a lot and the risk is high, says Jonas Lindmark.

Until December 17, Russia funds had an average return of 45 percent. Emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America have performed significantly worse.

The global equity index has risen by 34 percent, calculated in SEK. But in dollar terms, the increase is "only" 27 percent. The difference is due to the weak Swedish krona.

Both global funds and IT funds have benefited from the weak Swedish krona. Now the Riksbank has raised the interest rate to 0.0 per cent and many analysts believe in a stronger krona.

- One should not expect that the doping that the weak Swedish krona has given remains at the same level going forward, says Frida Bratt.

During November, total fund assets in Sweden increased by SEK 70 billion and at the end of November it reached SEK 4 941 billion, the largest total fund assets to date, according to the Fund Companies Association.

Equity funds had net deposits of SEK 9.5 billion and in mixed funds net savings of SEK 4 billion.

But fixed income funds were less exciting, in total savers in Sweden withdrew SEK 2.7 billion, net, from fixed income funds in November.

Many who do not trust a continued upturn are contemplating increasing their savings in fixed income funds and reducing equity funds.

Frida Bratt points out that this year's rise for equities and equity funds automatically leads to the person saving in both equity funds and fixed income funds increasing their risk.

She cites an example: Anyone who at the beginning of 2019 had SEK 200,000 distributed on 60 percent shares and 40 percent interest-bearing investments now has 67 percent shares and 33 percent interest.

This is because equities globally have risen by 34 percent while short-term interest rates have only risen by 0.3 percent.

Therefore, anyone who wants to keep the distribution 60/40 percent must sell shares or equity funds and fold them over to more interest rates.