In April, the Russians invested record amounts in PIFs
Investors confidently increase investments in share investment funds, but so far they prefer conservative tools. According to the results of April 2025, a pure influx in retail Pyths exceeded 40 billion rubles, more than 25 billion rubles. I had to go to bond funds. The assets of these funds are growing in price against the backdrop of the expectations of mitigating the monetary policy of the Bank of Russia. In addition, the demand for funds of the money market is restored, which continue to generate profitability above 21% per annum. But the growth of interest in more risky stock funds, market participants expect no earlier than the middle of this year in case of real mitigation of the Central Bank’s monetary policy.
According to Kommersant, based on Investfunds data, last month, a clean flow of funds in retail share funds (open and exchange PIFs) exceeded 40 billion rubles. This result is 4.4% higher than March (38.3 billion rubles) and the maximum result from the beginning of the year.
The second month in a row, the main driving force of the collective investment market remains bond funds, the net involvement of which according to the results of April amounted to 25.2 billion rubles.
This result is only 2.9% lower than Marta, but remains the third largest over the entire observation. A high interest in bond funds is associated with the results of their management this year. According to Kommersant, based on Investfunds data, according to the first four months of 2025, the TOP-20 of the best funds included 14 bond Pyths, which brought the shareholders an income of 9.5–17.6%. This was partly due to the growth of ruble bond quotes amid the expectations of the transfer of Bank of Russia to soften monetary policy. “High volatility in the stock market associated with geopolitics, in conjunction with the high profitability of the debt market, makes more conservative bonds with an interesting tool in the current conditions,” said Andrei Makarov, head of the sales department of the first -place Criminal Code. In addition, according to Maxim Bykovets, the director of welfare, the director of welfare products, investors can play “signs of foreign policy warming and a future decrease in geopolitical risks, the result of which can be a tributary of foreign capital to the ruble debt market.”
Market participants note the restoration of demand for funds of the monetary market, pure attraction to which in the reporting month exceeded 16 billion rubles. This is a third higher than the result of the previous month, although noticeably lower than the indicators of the beginning of the year. Adds attractiveness to the funds of the monetary market and the fact that the Rusfar index (is one of the benchmarks for these instruments) continues to stay near the level of 21% per annum, which is higher than the values of the late 2024, when investors invested a record amount of funds (into the monetary market funds (See “Kommersant” from January 15). According to Andrei Makarov, the restoration of interest in the funds of the monetary market is due to the fact that many banks, even against the background of maintaining a key rate, actively reduce deposits. According to the Central Bank, from the peak in mid -December 2024, by the third decade of 2025, the maximum rate of the largest banks decreased by almost 2.5 p., To 19.79% per annum.
In the coming months, market participants are counting on the further growth of investments in bond funds, which will contribute to further softening of the rhetoric of the Bank of Russia. According to Viktor Bark, the head of the Asset Management Department of the Alfa-Capital Criminal Code, this will be facilitated by some cooling in the economy.
According to the Ministry of Economy, in the first quarter of Russia’s GDP grew 1.7% after an increase of 4.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
“A decrease in GDP growth rate in combination with the retention of PMI indices below the level of 50 points of the second month in a row allows you to start forming a long -term bond portfolio,” says Mr. Bark.
The interests of the Russians will remain in the funds of the money market, but the dynamics of stock funds and mixed type will remain under pressure until the market can demonstrate steady growth. So far, the Moscow exchange index only symbolically exceeds the beginning of the year – according to the results of the main session on May 12, it only slightly exceeded 2930 points, which is less than 2% higher than the beginning of January. At the same time, attempts at the “bull” Games in the stock market were both in February and in April, but lasted less than a month. “It is important for investors to see one or two months of sustainable growth for a return to the product, so we expect the growth of tributaries to funds of shares no earlier than the third quarter of this year,” said Maxim Bykovets. It does not exclude the fact that the reversal in the cycle of monetary policy, which will be held at the June meeting of the Bank of Russia, can return the index to 3100–3150 points by the middle of the year.
