by Iris Gonzales (The Philippine Star)
MANILA, Philippines – The First Metro Philippine Equity Exchange-Traded Fund (FMETF) outperformed other exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the region for the month of May.
The FMETF, which mirrors the performance of the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), registered an average one-month return performance of 3.74 percent, according to the May 2016 Asia ETFs Insights published by Bloomberg.
The PSEi, the local stock barometer, went past the 7,500-level in May, making it the second highest performing index next to India’s Nifty 50.
In the same month, the Philippines-focused funds’ performance grew two percent compared to April.
“With GDP expanding at 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2016, the Philippines is the fastest growing economy in Asia and is expected to continue to perform well this year as cited by the International Monetary Fund,” Bloomberg said in its report.
In the region, there are 921 ETFs with a total of $251.84 billion assets under management (AUM). In the Philippines, FMETF is the only ETF.
In 2015, FMETF’s AUM grew 49 percent to P1.34 billion. Its net asset value per share (NAVPS) surged to P121.70 as of the end of May this year.
FMIC said Vietnam was the second best performing ETF in Asia with an average return of performance of 3.16 percent followed by Australia (2.79 percent), Thailand (2.25 percent) and Taiwan (1.16 percent).
“ETF is still very new in the country but given its performance and investor interest in the product, we can see that it has grown immensely in the last two years. We are very optimistic that it will continue to grow and provide steady returns to its investors driven by the strong performance of the Philippine economy,” said Augusto Cosio, president of First Metro Asset Management Inc.
Cosio said the ETF is for investors who are unable to watch a particular stock or industry but believe in the Philippine growth story.
