With net retail outflows of £485.8m, £428.3m and £186.2m, the IA UK All Companies and UK Equity Income and UK Smaller Companies sectors were the worst three selling sectors for the month of June.
While the UK All Companies and UK Equity Income peer groups were both in negative retail sales territory last month (with outflows of £532.1m and £23.1m respectively), it is quite a change in fortune for the smaller companies peer group, which in May saw net retail sales of £75.9m.
The most popular peer group in June was the IA Global sector, which saw net inflows of £465.2m. This was followed in second place by Targeted Absolute Return (£446.7m) and Sterling Strategic Bond in third with net retail sales of £362.9m.
Looking at sales on a half-yearly basis the IA noted that UK retail investors placed £18.4bn in UK funds in the first half of 2017, which is the highest level of net sales in the first half of any year on record.
Alastair Wainwright, a fund market specialist at the trade association, said: “So far, 2017 has been an extraordinary year for the UK funds industry as investors seem to have returned from their 2016 hiatus.
“Net retail sales were once again strong in June, reaching £2.9bn. Over the last six months, retail and institutional net sales into UK authorised funds totalled £28.7bn.”
Wainwright noted there were positive net retail investor flows into all asset classes in the first half of 2017. Mixed asset funds attracted the highest flows with £5.7bn, fixed income funds took in £4.2bn and equity funds rebounded from a negative 2016 with a net retail inflow of £4.1bn.
He added: “Targeted Absolute Return continued its reign as the most popular individual sector for retail investors with a net inflow of £2.2bn over the last six months. The £ Strategic Bond sector attracted £1.8bn and Global Equity sales were £1.6bn.”
