Investor caution keeps UK Equity Income, Property June’s best-sellers

Retaining pole position from the May report, UK Equity Income was also represented in the most popular funds lists, with Woodford Equity Income the top fund in adviser, pension and ISA sales.

Property was the second best-selling sector, followed by Targeted Absolute Return, which was represented in the funds lists by Standard Life Investments and Invesco Perpetual’s offerings, with the former – SLI Global Absolute Returns Strategy – claiming second place across all three categories.

Multi-asset options also experienced a growth in popularity, with Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares, Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares and Mixed Investment 0-35% Shares placing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in the sectors table.

UK mid-caps were also well-represented, with Neptune UK Mid Cap and Old Mutual UK Mid Cap the two prime examples, as investors seek to capitalise on slow but steady UK economic growth.

Danny Wynn, head of fund partners at Fidelity Worldwide Investments, cited ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds as behind the cautious investor sentiment.

“June continued to see the markets being shaken by concerns over Greece and liquidity issues,” he said. “It is therefore reasonable to see that advisers and their clients maintained a defensive stance in the month, as evidenced by our sales trends.

“Even with a last minute deal being struck between Greece and the eurozone, it appears we are still not out of the woods, particularly with China’s slowdown and ongoing concerns around liquidity risk. As a result we can expect continued investor caution and further flows into defensive assets such as equity income, property and multi asset funds over fixed income funds.”

Top 10 adviser sales by fund via FundsNetwork

Top 10 adviser sales by sector via FundsNetwork