According to the Investment Association, net retail sales into the Sterling Strategic Bond sector hit £1.58bn in October, a huge jump from the £985m recorded in August, making it the top selling peer group for a third month in a row.
This was followed by Targeted Absolute Return (£400.3m), Global (£345m) and Global Bonds (326.7m) as the other top selling asset classes.
UK investor behaviour in October 2017 saw UK Equity Income as the worst selling sector with a net retail outflow of £272m. Meanwhile the IA UK All Companies sector, which has been the worst selling peer group four times in 2017, saw redemptions totalling £223.9m.
Alastair Wainwright, fund market specialist of The Investment Association (IA) said: “UK investors continue to sell out of UK equities as both the UK All Companies and UK Equity Income sectors experienced outflows in October for the sixth month in a row.
“For the fifth month in a row, fixed income was the best-selling asset class with net retail sales of more than £2bn.
“Notably, the Sterling Strategic Bond has featured in the five best-selling sectors each month since December 2016.
“Mixed Asset funds continue to be popular with UK investors, with around £1bn a month being invested in this asset class since February this year. The last time mixed asset experienced a monthly outflow was January 2016.”
The IA’s funds under management increased by £29bn in October, up from £1trn last October to £1.2trn in 2017. Monthly net retail sales exceeded £5bn in October too.
Chris Cummings, chief executive of the IA, said: “2017’s record breaking run continued in October as monthly net retail sales were again in excess of £5bn.
“Industry funds under management also increased by almost £30bn through the month which means that, at the end of October our members were responsible for £1.194trn of UK investor savings and investments.”
