Money market funds have emerged as the instrument with the most significant growth among investment fund types. As of September, open-ended funds led the investment fund category in terms of size, reaching 2 trillion 7 billion liras.

While the development observed in the capital markets in recent years continues without slowing down, investors’ interest in funds persists. Accordingly, the amount managed by Portfolio Management Companies (PMC) reached 5 trillion 564 billion liras last month. According to data compiled from the Turkey Institutional Investors Managers Association (TIIMA), as of September 23, the size of investment funds increased by 119% since the beginning of the year, reaching 3 trillion 909 billion 140 million liras. During this period, the total number of investment funds also increased by 16% to 2,098.

HIGHEST SIZE IN OPEN-ENDED FUNDS Among investment funds, open-ended funds held the largest size with 2 trillion 7 billion liras, while money market funds, which reached 916.7 billion liras with a 519% increase since the beginning of the year, stood out as the instrument with the most significant growth. Following them, participation funds reached a size of 135.3 billion liras with a 189% increase, and precious metals funds amounted to 76 billion liras with a 107% rise. As of September 23, the growth performances since the beginning of the year were 97% in equity funds, 91% in open-ended funds, 66% in fund basket funds, 52% in venture capital funds, 45% in stock exchange investment funds, 38% in mixed and variable funds, and 35% in real estate funds. During this period, venture capital funds amounted to 192.6 billion liras, equities to 166.4 billion liras, real estate investment funds to 102.2 billion liras, stock exchange investment funds to 93.3 billion liras, debt securities funds to 87.7 billion liras, fund basket funds to 69.4 billion liras, and mixed and variable funds to 62.1 billion liras. In the last year, precious metals funds provided the highest return among investment funds at 74.31%, followed by stock exchange investment funds at 62.45%, participation funds at 56.79%, and money market funds at 55.42%. Other investment funds had returns of 50.66% in mixed and variable investment funds, 49.86% in fund basket funds, 48.83% in equity funds, and 43.77% in debt securities funds. In the last three years, equity funds provided the highest return with 767.2%, followed by stock exchange investment funds at 613.1%, precious metals funds at 477.9%, mixed and variable funds at 454.9%, fund basket funds at 295.4%, participation funds at 266.9%, debt securities funds at 155.4%, and money market funds at 131.7%.

Highest Returns in Variable Funds in Pension Investment Funds (BES) In the same period, the returns of individual pension system (BES) funds were also examined. According to this, variable funds provided the highest return in the last year at 83.5%. During this period, gold funds yielded 78%, flexible and mixed funds 58.6%, fund basket funds 57.5%, money market funds 56.1%, equity funds 51.5%, private sector bonds and bills (PSB) funds 49.1%, public external debt instruments funds 46.8%, public internal debt instruments funds 42.5%, contribution funds 39.7%, standard funds 35.6%, index funds 21.2%. The BES fund type with the highest gain in the last three years was equity funds at 926.8%. Following equity funds were index funds with a 786.9% return and variable funds with 738.2%. Gold funds had a return of 521.3%, flexible and mixed funds 453.6%, public external debt instruments funds 361.3%, fund basket funds 303.3%, contribution funds 225.7%, standard funds 221.4%, public internal debt instruments funds 157.8%, PSB funds 139.7%, and money market funds 130.3%.

Atak Classic Funds Ranked First in OKS Fund Returns In the last year, Atak Classic funds provided the highest return in automatic enrollment system (OKS) classic funds at 68%, followed by cautious classic funds at 65% and conservative classic funds at 64.7%. Other OKS funds were ranked as aggressive classic funds at 60.2%, balanced classic funds at 58.3%, starter classic funds at 56.7%, dynamic classic funds at 50.4%, and standard classic funds at 43.8%. In the last three years, aggressive classic funds had a return of 914%, Atak classic funds 798.1%, dynamic classic funds 586.2%, balanced classic funds 499.7%, standard classic funds 259.6%, cautious classic funds 234%, conservative classic funds 204.1%, and starter classic funds 143%. President of TIIMA, Yağız Oral, drew attention to the increase in the number of individual investors in investment funds, stating that the number of investors increased from 3 million to 5.2 million over the past four years. Oral noted, “We notice a significant increase in investments in money market funds. The highest growth in terms of the number of individuals was experienced in money market funds. It has emerged as an alternative to deposits in recent times.”