CRI听力：Volatile Market Dampens Enthusiasm for Funds Investment

China's first batch of equity funds in five months raised about one-fifth of their targets on their issue day, reflecting the stronger-than-expected purchasing enthusiasm. However, due to concerns over a volatile stock market in China, investors are turning cautious towards buying fund products.

Our Shanghai correspondent Zhou Jing takes a look.

Two new closed-end stock funds raised 2.8 billion yuan, or US$390 million, in total on their first day of sales on Monday.
With an expected acquirement of four to six billion yuan in one month, the Jianxin fund raised more than 1.3 billion yuan. The Nanfangshengyuan fund raised 1.5 billion yuan compared to its expectation of six to eight billion yuan.

Ms. Gu, a shanghai resident who bought the Jianxin Fund, considers this the right time to invest in funds as the stocks slump.

"I believe the yield of funds at least won't be less than the interests for bank deposits."

Although both fund houses releasing the new funds said in statements on Monday that they were confident to reach sales targets in the coming weeks, industry analysts noted the lower pace showed that investors still don't have full confidence in the market.

Amid a bull run of the stock market, mutual funds were hotly pursued by retail investors last year with demand outpacing supply several times at launches.

However, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has lost 25 percent from a record high of over 6,000 points in mid-October. Not only did stock investors suffer losses from the recession but also funds investors, as more than 60 percent of investment funds in China had losses in the fourth quarter last year, totaling 72 billion yuan.

Ms. Shen, who has bought four funds since March 2007, says she won't consider buying new fund before her old funds start to make money.

"The funds I bought before April are still profitable but those I bought after August are losing a lot of money. So I think it's too risky for me to buy new funds now. I'm going to wait and see how the share index goes."

Although the market shows signs of rebounding during the past two days, concerns over a possible economic slowdown and growing inflation have made investors balk at stepping in.

Experts predict that the profit of funds this year will drop sharply compared with that in the past two years, which is a sign of a matured market and investment mentality.