Morningstar: UK-domiciled funds enjoy first month of positive flows in a year

Largely driven by inflows into fixed income products

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UK-domiciled funds enjoyed £861m net inflows in April, marking the first positive month for flows since May 2023, according to Morningstar’s latest fund flow report.

A net £1bn inflow into fixed-income strategies was the key driver, while money markets added £11m.

All other asset classes, however, saw modest net withdrawals.

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Active and passive flows followed usual trends, with £2.9bn flowing out of active while £3.8bn was added to passive.

Global Large-Cap Blend Equity was the most popular Morningstar fund category in the month, recording £1.1bn inflows. This was followed by Japan Large-Cap Equity at £368m.

Equities as a whole witnessed a £38m net outflow.

In terms of individual funds, the £7.3bn Fidelity Index World fund enjoyed £370m net inflows.

At the other end of the scale, the £6.8bn Federated Hermes Short-Term Sterling Prime fund saw an outflow of £676m, while investors pulled £367m from the £1.6bn Jupiter UK Special Situations fund with manager Ben Whitmore set to depart later this year.

Giovanni Cafaro, analyst, Morningstar manager research, said: “UK-domiciled funds experienced a modest turnaround in April, reversing the outflow trend observed since May 2023, with fixed-income funds driving inflows.

“Notably, global corporate bond funds continued to gain traction within the asset class, offsetting outflows from global flexible bond strategies. Within the equity fund universe, investors showed a preference for both global and Japan large-cap equity funds, while UK equity funds continued to see persistent outflows on aggregate.”