Riyadh, April 18, 2024, At the conclusion of the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, the assets managed by both local and foreign investment funds in the Saudi market reached SAR122.578 billion, marking a notable 5% growth from the preceding quarter. This expansion translated into an estimated increase of SAR5.460 billion, compared to SAR117.117 billion recorded at the end of Q3 2023.
The surge in assets was predominantly driven by a 7% uptick in local assets, which saw a substantial rise of approximately SAR6.348 billion, reaching a total of about SAR101.182 billion, according to the Saudi Central Bank's monthly statistical bulletin for February 2024. These local assets constituted a significant portion, accounting for approximately 82.5% of the overall assets held by investment funds.
Additionally, the number of subscribers to these funds witnessed a quarterly uptick of approximately 4%, culminating in 1,080,455 million subscribers by the end of Q4 2023. Concurrently, the number of active investment funds also experienced a modest increase of about 3%, totaling 291 funds.
Breaking down the composition of assets, foreign funds contributed approximately SAR21.396 billion, comprising roughly 17.5% of the total assets held by investment funds.
Further analysis revealed that open-ended investment funds, totaling 267 funds, amassed SAR93.298 billion in assets, while 24 closed-ended investment funds amassed approximately SAR29.279 billion.
The assets held by investment funds were categorized into nine diverse investment segments based on their type. Among these, local stock assets held the highest value at SAR27.904 billion, representing about 22.8% of the total assets. Real estate investments followed closely, amounting to SAR24.730 billion and constituting around 20.2% of the total investment assets.
The breakdown continued with investments in local cash instruments valued at SAR23.767 billion (19.4% of total assets), foreign cash instruments at SAR14.525 billion (11.8%), local bonds and sukuk at SAR13.787 billion (11.2%), "other local assets" at SAR10.994 billion (9%), foreign stocks at SAR3.497 billion (2.9%), foreign bonds at SAR2.711 billion (2.2%), and "other foreign assets" at SAR663 million.
