HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Vietnam Blue-chip Investment Fund (VF4) reported a total profit of VND67 billion (US$3.1 million) last year, lifting its net asset value (NAV) to nearly VND8,977 ($0.42) per fund certificate by the year's end.

This figure represented a 2 per cent decrease compared with market growth of 8.1 per cent for the whole year.

Luong Thi My Hanh, the fund's deputy director, attributed the modest results to the East Sea crisis and the steep drop in global oil prices in the last two months of the year.

"VF4 achieved a growth rate of up to 28 per cent in the third quarter, but losses on global oil pulled the fund's growth to just 6.1 per cent by the end of the year," Hanh said in VF4's annual investors' meeting last week.

She said energy stocks made up 20 to 25 per cent of the total market capitalisation and their losses dragged down other shares on the market.

VF4, set up in January 2008, is an open-ended fund under the management of Vietnam Fund Management Co. It invests in blue chips on the stock market, as well as the leading State-owned enterprises operating in fundamental sectors such as energy, materials, finance and banking, telecommunications, infrastructure, real estate and consumer goods.

The portfolio landscape saw big changes last year. The material, which ranked fourth in 2013, rose to the top position with a share of 13.5 per cent of the fund's NAV. Real estate came second with 11.3 per cent of NAV.

The fund plans to expand investment in these two sectors in 2015, hoping for the recovery of the real estate sector and the devaluation of the euro, which will benefit the companies having borrowed a lot of the money.

The proportion belonging to technology hardware and equipment decreased strongly toward the end of 2014 with 5.7 per cent of NAV. But it contributed nearly 48 per cent of the fund's total profit, mainly from the sale of 50 per cent of its holdings in FPT Corp (FPT).

Regarding the energy sector, while the fund sold shares of PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service Corp (PVS) at the right time and realized good profit, the delay in selling shares of PV Gas (GAS), which at some times occupied 10 per cent of the fund's NAV, pulled down its overall profit.

The finance and banking, material, utilities and auto parts sectors saw growth last year between 7-20 per cent.

In 2015, VF4 said it would its faith in the potential growth of materials, real estate, utilities, transportation, health care services and banking industries. These sectors are expected to benefit from the foreign exchange rate and material cost reduction. Meanwhile, it will trim down investments in industrial goods, financial services, automobiles, consumer goods and energy.

The fund's cash holding by the end of the year reached 14.2 per cent of NAV. It has set a target to increase its net profit 7.8 per cent in 2015. — VNS