Retail sales of investment funds hit new record, IMA stats

28 October 2009 2:09 pm | By Hannah Smith

Meanwhile equities have overtaken bonds as the most popular asset class, and sales of absolute return funds have dwarfed corporate bonds following the latter’s 10 months at the top.

The IMA’s investment fund statistics for September show that net retail sales over the year to date have exceeded the total for the whole of 2000, which was the best year recorded. Total net retail sales have reached £18.7 billion so far in 2009.

September was the sixth consecutive month that net retail sales rose above the £2bn mark, reaching £2.7bn, a 24 per cent rise from August.

Total UK-domiciled funds under management now stand at £463.4bn. This is the highest they have been since December 2007, when funds hit £467.8bn.

Net retail sales of equities were close to £1bn (£995m) in September, compared to £566m of bond sales. Over the third quarter as a whole, net equity sales reached £2.4bn against £2.1bn of bond sales. Within equities, there was a diverse spread of popular funds from outside Britain, with global growth and emerging market funds doing particularly well.

Absolute return funds accounted for £442.4m of net retail sales, beating the second best selling corporate bond sector which saw sales of £323.5m.

Property was the third best selling sector. Net retail sales of property funds more than doubled between August and September, reaching £261m as investor confidence in the asset class began to return. Property funds represented 10 per cent of total net retail sales in September, up from 6 per cent in August.

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