The Investment Management Association (IMA) has published its monthly statistics for January 2014:
- Net retail sales were over £1bn for the tenth consecutive month at £1.1 billion
- Equity was the best-selling asset class, also for the tenth successive month with net retail sales of £464 million
- UK and Europe were the best-selling regions for equity funds
- Targeted Absolute Return was the top-selling IMA sector with net retail sales of £343 million – the highest since December 2009
Daniel Godfrey, chief executive, IMA, said: "Net retail sales were twice the level of January last year. Investors continued to favour equities, especially UK and European funds, while Targeted Absolute Return funds saw their highest sales since December 2009."
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ASSET CLASSES
Equity continues to be the best-selling asset class into 2014 with net retail sales of £464 million in January.
Property was the second best-selling asset class with net retail sales of £232 million, the highest since March 2010.
Mixed Asset was the third best-selling asset class with net retail sales of £213 million.
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By GlobalDataThe fixed income asset class saw a net outflow of £229 million.
Net Retail Sales of Equity by Region
UK equity funds were the best-selling region in January 2014 for the third consecutive month, with net retail sales of £644 million.
European equity funds were the second best-selling with net retail sales of £261 million.
Asian equity funds saw a net retail outflow of £235 million and North American funds an outflow of £149 million.
Global equity funds saw a net retail outflow of £81 million, the first net retail outflow since November 2011.
IMA SECTOR RANKINGS
The top five best-selling IMA sectors for January 2014 were:
Targeted Absolute Return with net retail sales of £343 million – the highest since December 2009 and well above its monthly average over the previous 12 months at £184 million. The last time this sector was best-selling was in May 2013.
UK Smaller Companies with net retail sales of £241 million – the highest on record (since January 1992). The last time this sector was in the top five best-selling sectors list was January 2001.
Property with net retail sales of £232 million – the highest since March 2010 and well above the monthly average of £128 million over the previous 12 months.
UK All Companies with net retail sales of £213 million, well above its monthly average over the previous 12 months of £13 million.
Europe Excluding UK with net retail sales of £200 million, well above its monthly average over the previous 12 months of £104 million.
The worst-selling IMA sector for January 2014 was £ Corporate Bond with a net retail outflow of £225 million.
RETAIL DISTRIBUTION
In January 2014, UK fund platforms continued to see the highest gross retail sales at £6.4 billion, representing a 53% market share (44% in January 2013).
Gross retail sales for Other Intermediaries (includes Wealth Managers, Stockbrokers and IFAs) totalled £4.8 billion in January 2014, a market share of 40% (48% in January 2013).
Direct gross retail sales in January 2014 were £871 million, representing a market share of 7% (same as in January 2013).
FUND PLATFORM PRODUCT SALES
For the five fund platforms that provide data to the IMA (Cofunds, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Skandia and Transact) net sales for January 2014 were £1 billion.
Unwrapped products had the highest net sales at £604 million, followed by Personal Pensions (£290 million) and ISAs (£162 million). Insurance Bonds saw a net outflow of £19 million.
For the same five fund platforms, funds under management as at the end of January 2014 were £162 billion, compared with £138 billion a year earlier.
ISAs
In January 2014, there was a net outflow of £9 million in net sales for ISAs through fund companies and the five fund platforms that provide data to the IMA (Cofunds, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Skandia and Transact). This is much less than in January 2013 when ISAs saw a net outflow of £307 million.
The top three best-selling sectors for ISAs based on the five fund platforms were:
UK Equity Income (£60.2 million net sales)
UK Smaller Companies (£59.4 million net sales)
UK All Companies (£40.4 million net sales)
FUND OF FUNDS
Net retail sales for funds of funds in January 2014 were £116 million. Net retail sales of funds of funds with different asset management firms were £120 million. However, there was a net outflow of £5 million from funds of funds invested into the same firm’s funds.
Funds under management for funds of funds were at £86.4 billion as at the end of January 2014, accounting for 11.4% of industry funds under management, compared with 11.3% in January 2013.
TRACKER FUNDS
Tracker funds saw net retail sales of £245 million in January 2014.
Funds under management for tracker funds were £72 billion as at the end of January 2014. Their overall share of total funds under management was 9.5%, compared with 9.1% in January 2013.
ETHICAL FUNDS
Net retail sales of ethical funds were £32 million in January 2014.
Funds under management for ethical funds were £8.9 billion at the end of January. Their share of total funds under management was 1.2%.
OVERSEAS DOMICILED FUNDS
In January 2014, net retail sales of overseas domiciled funds were £145 million.
