“We saw a continuation of strong investment fund sales in November last year – the top five best-selling IMA sectors indicate that investors are favouring equity and mixed asset funds, with property funds also doing well,” Daniel Godfrey, chief executive of the IMA, said.
Total global net retail sales for equity funds hit £935m in November 2013, followed by the second best-selling asset class, mixed asset, with net retail sales of £358m.
A resurgence in interest in yield meant net retail sales for property funds remained strong at £212m.
Home bias
UK equity funds were popular with investors as the economic outlook continues to improve. Alongside a more positive business outlook, the stock market saw a strong performance in 2013 as the FTSE All Share ended the year up 18.7%. All these factors contributed to greater investor confidence in equitites.
“Returns on corporate bonds have been low in 2013, with the IMA £ Corporate Bond sector returning 0.9% to the end of November 2013. Investors have avoided corporate bond funds as they expected the US Federal Reserve would begin tapering quantitative easing in December, which it did,” Adrian Lowcock, senior investment manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
Regional net sales
UK and European equity funds were the best-selling in November 2013 with net retail sales of £409m and £240m respectively.
Meanwhile, Japanese equity funds were the fourth best-selling but saw the highest net retail sales since February 2011 at £117m.
North America was the only region to see an outflow in equity funds, of £63m, in November.
