Retail investors put £2.4bn in investment funds in April, with £931m of that going into Isa accounts
Funds under management in the industry rebounded after a 2% fall in the previous month, rising by 3% in April – helped by rising stock markets
UK stock market funds continued to be out of favour – taking outflows since the Brexit vote to almost £8bn
But investors ploughed back into global, US and emerging market equities in April. Equity funds saw a net inflow of £1.6bn in the month, up on the £554m seen in March
The latest figures from the Investment Association can be found here.
Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at AJ Bell, said:
“Despite the FTSE nudging close to 8,000 this month, outflows from UK focused funds continued.
“Since Brexit £7.9bn has poured out of UK stock market funds, with £1.8bn of that coming from UK Equity Income funds, and £5.8bn from UK All Companies funds.”
“Investors tentatively moved back into the UK Equity Income sector in April, but UK stock market funds overall still saw outflows of £142m in the period.
“However, investors are getting more bullish and returned to equity markets in force, committing £1.6bn during the period. Fears of escalating trade wars, ongoing tensions with North Korea and rising interest rates have not deterred investors from the US, or global markets, which together saw more than £1bn of the equity inflows.
“Since April last year, more than £7.8bn has moved into Strategic Bond funds, with March being the first for outflows since the Brexit vote.
“While not recording further outflows in April, strategic bond funds stood pretty flat for the past month. It seems Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s hokey cokey with interest rate rises has deterred investors from the sector.
“After last month’s 2% fall in assets under management across the industry, the total figure has rebounded by 3% – no doubt helped by rallying stock markets, boosted in part by the rising price of oil.
“Money continued to flow into mixed asset funds, a trend that is expected to continue as auto-enrolment pension contributions increase – having seen another step up this month.”