Equity was the best-selling asset class for the seventh consecutive month with net retail sales at £1.1bn, compared to £720m in October.
UK equity funds were the bestsellers with sales in November at £611m, compared to an average for the previous 12 months at just £93m.
European equity funds achieved £367m in the month, while Japan was the third best-selling region with inflows of £134m.
Despite the promise of a Fed rate rise – which eventually came in December – North American equity funds achieved inflows of just £4m, though this was an improvement over the £112m outflows in October.
Total net retail sales across all asset classes hit £1.7bn in November, the highest sales since July 2015.
“This was mainly driven by investors looking to equity funds for returns, with UK and European focused products leading the way,” said IA interim chief executive Guy Sears.
“We also saw renewed investor appetite for Japanese equity funds as the sector returned to the top-five selling with net retail sales nearly double their 12-month average.”
Property was the fourth best-selling IA sector during November at £135m, though fixed income remained out of favour – Sterling Strategic Bond achieved £64.9m, Global Bonds at £6.1m, Sterling High Yield at £2.1m, while Sterling Corporate Bond funds saw outflows of £11.7m.
Overall, retail funds under management was £855bn, compared to £843bn 12 months earlier.
2016 has begun with falling markets, particularly given fresh concerns around China’s growth.
With this in mind, food for thought comes in the form of research released today by AXA Investment Managers, which shows the maximum drawdowns for IA sectors over one, three, five and 10 years.
IA Sectors maxium drawdowns
| 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years | |
| IA UK All Companies | -10% | -10.1% | -15.1% | -42.6% |
| IA North America | -11.2% | -11.2% | -12.5% | -29.8% |
| IA Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares | -6.5% | -6.5% | -7.1% | -23.7% |
| IA Mixed Investment 0-35% Shares | -4.5% | -4.5% | -4.5% | -14.8% |
| IA £ Corporate Bond | -4.3% | -5.1% | -5.1% | -16.5% |
| IA UK Gilt | -6.7% | -6.9% | -6.9% | -6.9% |
Source: AXA IM
