Investment funds saturated and on verge of collapse?

No longer does this appear to be true. The last few months saw a gigantic inflow of investor money to equity funds, one of the riskiest classes of assets. Equity funds' assets under management totaled zł.38.5 billion at the end of June, up from zł.12.5 billion a year ago. Of this, almost zł.9 billion has been invested in small and mid cap funds, the riskiest of all funds. In June alone, equity funds attracted zł.5 billion of new money. "This creates a danger of imminent collapse, and the risk is growing by the day," warns Emil Szweda of Open Finance, the financial advisory firm. Investors have warmed to stocks amid an unprecedented bull run on the stock market, with WIG, the WSE's main benchmark index, gaining around 14-15% in each of the last three quarters. The sales of mutual funds through banks, and aggressive - and not always ethical - advertising campaigns from fund managers have also had a major impact. But, warn analysts, many of the new investors may not be aware of the true extent of risk. More stockbrokers are now advising clients to shift some of their money from Polish to other CEE stocks. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 18) R.M.