Total sales in the first quarter reached €87.4bn, which nevertheless fell way short of Q1 2007’s figure of €133.4bn, and were helped enormously by the best sales of bond funds in an opening quarter for the decade (€57.9bn).
Excluding money market funds, long-term funds saw inflows of €77.1bn in the first three months of the year, better than the €61.4bn seen in the same period of 2007 but below the €104.7bn seen in Q1 2010.
Ed Moisson, Head of UK & Cross-Border Research at Lipper said: "Importantly through 2010 investors withdrew €112.2bn from money market funds, but moves into other asset classes (or out of funds altogether) have slowed dramatically since."
Bonds vs. equities
High yield funds, and particularly dollar-denominated products, have had a good start to the year, with the asset class witnessing €17.4bn of sales and dollar-denominated funds accounting for €8.1bn of those.
Unsurprisingly the appetite for equity funds slowed as the quarter progressed, as renewed concerns surrounding the eurozone came to the fore once again.
But the quarter total for equity funds still stood at €12.2bn, with funds investing in European markets bearing the brunt of withdrawals, while global and emerging markets garnered the most inflows.
Big winners
In keeping with recent trends, Allianz/Pimco, Axa/AllianceBernstein and M&G/Prudential generated the greatest net sales over the first quarter.
Lipper said that in total seven funds attracted inflows of more than €1bn this quarter, headed by AllianceBernstein’s American Income Portfolio, which saw €2bn in sales, followed by Pimco Global Investment Grade Credit (€1.8bn) and M&G Optimal Income (€1.6bn).
