In March, investors continued pulling out their money from mutual funds as the international financial markets dulled appetites for this type of investment alternative.

According to data of the Bulgarian industry association of mutual fund managers, the total assets of mutual funds, as of March 31 this year, were down 82 million leva, or 11 per cent on the month, to 940 million leva.

The assets of Bulgarian mutual funds alone were down 82 million leva to 673 million leva as of end-March, whereas the figure was at 886 million leva as of December 31 2007. Venture mutual funds suffered the largest outflow, individual monthly asset declines ranging between 14 and 23 per cent.

Conservative and balanced schemes suffered lesser losses and their performance is on a par with fluctuations on the local stock exchange because of local mutual funds' heavy exposure on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). Monthly statistics of the BSE showed that the blue-chip Sofix and the broader BG40 indices lost 15 per cent of their value in March alone and 30 per cent since the turn of the year.

The lack of positive news on the bourse in March, which hit a one-year low during the month, led to the predictable reaction of buy-outs.

Severin Vurtigov, portfolio manager of Benchmark Asset Management, told Dnevnik daily that many of the investors were in a wait-and-see mood and often tended to move money for less risky investments, such as currency market funds or deposits.