Photo Source: REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan. Healthcare workers prepare Sinovac's vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during a mass vaccination for Indonesian medical workers, at the Istora Senayan stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 4, 2021.
For the month, 75% of all closed-end funds (CEFs) posted (net asset value) NAV-based returns in the black, with 58% of equity CEFs and 88% of fixed income CEFs chalking up returns in the plus column. For the first month in nine, Lipper’s domestic equity CEFs macro-group (+1.19%) outpaced its two equity-based brethren: mixed-assets CEFs (+0.53%) and world equity CEFs (+0.07%). The Energy MLP CEFs classification (+6.09%) for the third month in four outperformed all other equity classifications, followed by Natural Resources CEFs (+3.47%) and Convertible Securities CEFs (+1.77%).
For the first month in 10, municipal bond CEFs jumped to the top of the charts, posting a 1.43% return on average, followed by domestic taxable fixed income CEFs (+1.08%) and world income CEFs (-0.31%). Fixed income investors were a bit more conservative during the month, showing some inflationary concerns. They pushed Loan Participation CEFs (+1.75%) to the top of the domestic taxable fixed income leaderboard for the first month in five, followed by U.S. Mortgage CEFs (+1.47%) and General Bond CEFs (+0.94%).
For January, the median discount of all CEFs widened 38 basis points (bps) to 7.29% - narrower than the 12-month moving average median discount (8.67%). In this report, we highlight January 2021 CEF performance trends, premiums and discounts, and corporate actions and events.
