Lipper Fund Market Insight Reports

The Month in Closed-End Funds: April 2012

lipperclientservices@thomsonreuters.com — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 -0600

For the first month in five equity closed-end funds (CEFs) posted returns in the red for April, losing just 0.03% and 0.25% on NAV and market bases, respectively. Fixed income funds were in the black--for the fourth month in five--gaining 1.43% and 2.15%.

For the month all of Lipper's municipal debt fund (+1.68% on average), taxable bond fund (+1.09%), and world bond fund (+0.87%) classifications posted positive returns.

For the tenth month in eleven all of the municipal debt CEF classifications posted positive NAV-based returns. California Municipal Debt Funds (+1.99%) rose to the top of the muni class.

While some dividend payers and energy plays got attention during the month, mixed-equity funds (+0.23%) and domestic equity funds (+0.09%) just managed to stay on the plus side.

The April median discount of all CEFs narrowed 58 basis points (bps) to 1.84%, remaining below the 12-month moving average of 3.36% for the sixth consecutive month.

Hong Kong MPF Market Summary (March 2012)

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0600

• Hong Kong MPFs declined 1.37% on average for March, attributed mainly to the equity MPFs and mixed-asset MPFs, which fell 2.23% and 1.04% on average, respectively. Bond MPFs declined 0.54% for the month.

• The current secondary correction of the global equity markets began in late March/early April 2012. Many global equity market benchmark indices have now lost at least 33% of the gains they made in the secondary uptrend that began in mid-December 2011. Such findings add optimism that the prevailing weakness of the global equity markets may disappear toward the end of 2Q2012.

Hong Kong MPF Market Summary (March 2012)

lipperclientservices@thomsonreuters.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0600