The figure, up from the £130m in net retail sales seen in Q1 2010 and the £573m seen in Q4 2010, contributed to tracker funds under management rising to £39.8bn at the end of March 2011, up from the £33.5bn level seen at the end of 2010.
In total, 40 of the 81 tracker funds track UK indices, focusing predominately on the FTSE 100 according to the IMA.
Net retail sales of all funds fell from the Q4 2010 total of £6bn to £4.7bn in Q1 2011, however. Sales of funds of funds remained relatively flat at £1.7bn. Around half of this latter category (£860m) was invested into balanced funds, the IMA says.
“Quarter 1’s statistics show a growing appetite for tracker funds, with the highest net retail sales of trackers on record. Although tracker funds account for a modest 7% of total funds, this proportion has been growing steadily over the past two years,” said IMA chief executive Richard Saunders.
“Funds of funds remain popular with investors. In gross retail sales terms, £1 in every £8 invested in funds was invested in Funds of funds in Quarter 1."
