Golden glow for TMB unit
TMB Asset Management has benefited from a sharp increase in the global price of gold, with its passive-investment strategy Gold Fund comfortably posting a return of around 13.6 per cent in less than five months since its inception early in December.
It invested in the World Gold Trust Services' Streettracks Gold Trust, which put its money in 99.99-per-cent gold bullion. Gold traded in the Kingdom is 96.5 per cent pure. The passive-investment method ensured that the fund's net asset value would move in accordance with gold's global price. When the fund was opened, the price on the London Gold PM Fix market had just crossed the US$500 an ounce (Bt10,034.50 a baht weight) mark, registering a new high of $536.50 on December 12 before sliding to close at $513 at the end of the year. The price kept rising thereafter to climb to an unprecedented $572.15 early in February. This was followed by a slower rise until the end of March, when it reached $580. It closed at $644 on April 28. In keeping with its policy, the TMB Gold Fund did not hedge for the currency. With the baht rising, it lost around 10 per cent of its 13.6-per-cent return, accounting from the fund's net asset value on April 28. According to the Bank of Thailand, early in December a US dollar bought Bt41.45. On April 28 it was Bt37.62. The TMB Asset Management website noted that the fund had obtained a 5.74-per-cent return in the past three months, compared with the 11.12-per-cent and 7.21-per-cent benchmarks for bullion gold investment on the New York and Thai markets.
Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon The Nation
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