Seeing out the year in second place was the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, followed closely into third by the Strategic Bond sector.
Strategic bonds have been a popular choice for investors looking to add defensive assets to portfolios. According to the latest Investment Association figures, net retail sales for the IA Strategic Bond sector hit £7.25bn in the first 11 months of 2017. The sector took in £5bn between August and November alone, the IA found.
As well as diversifying, investors on Fidelity International’s platform looked to take on a more defensive stance as the Short Term Money Market and Corporate Bond sectors featured in sixth and seventh position respectively.
These trends were also borne out in the top selling funds for the month. Top of the list was the Royal London Short Duration Global Index Linked fund, followed by the CF Lindsell Train UK Equity fund and the Blackrock Corporate Bond fund.
The top 10 best-selling funds also featured the Aberdeen Cash fund in fifth place.
Paul Richards, head of sales at FundsNetwork, said: “As 2017 came to a close it’s clear from our latest sales data that advisory firms and their clients were focussed on two key themes – asset class diversification through multi asset funds and allocating towards more defensive assets.
“Given the extended nature of the current bull market, we would expect advisers and their clients to continue to gravitate towards assets that offer diversification benefits or those that have more defensive properties over the course of 2018.”
