China's seventh open-ended fund, E Fund, reported average daily sales worth 5 million yuan after it was issued two weeks ago in Shanghai, according to the Bank of China Shanghai branch.
China issued its first open-ended fund, Hua'an, in September last year followed by six funds in the past 11 months, which have reported favorable growth so far.
The net value of open-ended funds grew by an average 7.65 percent in the first half of this year, higher than the 3.62 percent of closed funds. Hua'an grew by 10 percent in the first six months of this year.
A survey covering 40,000 investors showed that Chinese institutional and individual investors prefer low-risk investments with stable returns such as funds after the high-tech bubble burst.
The open-ended funds would have a rosy future as the securities regulator had loosened controls on setting them up though funds in China are still in their infancy, said Qiu Yanying from the research institute with the China Securities Co. Ltd.
A newly-issued closed fund, Yinfeng, announced in its contract that it intended to change to an open-ended fund in a year. Insiders note that if the Yinfeng shift succeeds, it will start a trend among funds.
(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2002)
