The Markets March 17, 2011

New Funds Bring Hefty Flows in Asia

Long-term funds in Asia saw $8.7 billion of flows in January, with new launches collecting over 100% of the total contributions, according to Strategic Insight, an Asset International company.
Reported by

Among new fund highlights for the month: Nomura Japan Undervalued Low-priced Equity Fund in Japan took in over $0.8 billion, and China’s E Fund Healthcare Sector Equity Fund absorbed nearly $0.6 billion. Lion Global Gold Fund, the first gold fund in China, attracted $0.5 billion in new money.  

Japan had $5.08 billion in net inflows for the month, with Bond High Yield ($3.11 billion), Real Estate ($2.52 billion), and Bond Asia Pacific ($1.93 billion) the categories with the highest inflows, SI data showed.  

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In India, net inflows were $6.22 billion, with Money Market funds drawing in the bulk of that amount – $5.97 billion.  

Net inflows totaled $1.15 billion for Hong Kong, with Equity Asia Pacific drawing in the bulk of that total ($1.03 billion).  

Indonesia favored Equity Asia Pacific funds ($356M), and posted a net inflow of $384M in January.  

Korea saw a net outflow of $4.22 billion for the month. According to SI data, the Mixed Conservative ($261M), Equity Sector/Other ($92M), and Equity North America ($27M) categories were the only ones to post a net inflow for the month.  

In Taiwan, mutual funds posted a net outflow of $454M in January. Bond Emerging Markets funds drew in the most assets, at $148M, while Money Market funds were the least favorite, posting a net outflow of $708M.  

Bond Asia Pacific funds were January’s favorite in Singapore ($29M). However, mutual funds in total posted a net outflow of $113M, with Equity Global ($-47M) and Bond Global ($-40M) funds leading that movement.   

An outflow of $646M from Money Market funds contributed to the net outflow of $735M in Thailand. The same was true for Malaysia in January, which saw a total net outflow of $295M, and a net outflow from Money Market funds of $292M.  

As of December 2010, China had a net outflow of $2.46 billion. China Mutual Fund Flows are updated quarterly by SI. 
Diversions March 17, 2011

U.S. Life Expectancy Hits Another High

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a preliminary report this week on the life expectancy of a baby born in 2009.  
Reported by

The life expectancy estimate of 78 years and 2 months for a baby born in 2009 is two months higher than what the CDC gave to a baby born in 2008. Women are still expected to outlive men, with average life expectancy at 75.5 for men and 80.5 for women.

The Associated Press is reporting about 2.4 million people died in the U.S. in 2009 — roughly 36,000 fewer deaths than the previous year. Deaths were down for a range of causes, from heart disease to homicide, so experts can’t give one explanation for the increase in life expectancy; better medical treatment, vaccination campaigns and public health measures against smoking are commonly believed to attribute to the longer life spans.

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The CDC report also said infant mortality rate hit a record low of 6.42 deaths per 1,000 live births, a drop of nearly 3% from 2008.

Other highlights from the 2009 report include:

  • Death rates declined slightly for 10 of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, homicide and influenza and pneumonia.
  • Suicide passed blood infections to become the 10th leading cause of death. Suicide rates did not change significantly, but the blood infection death rate dropped nearly 2%. That puts suicide back in the top 10 causes of deaths for the first time since 1999.
  • The influenza/pneumonia death rate dropped nearly 5%, even though 2009 was the year that the swine flu pandemic hit.

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