UK Equity Income remained the best-selling Investment Management Association sector for the third consecutive month, with net retail sales of £376m, IMA chief executive Daniel Godfrey has said.
Commenting on figures released by the trade body for asset managers, he said: “Retail investors again favoured equity income funds in August despite the fact that overall sales, and in particular sales of equity funds, were lower than in recent months.”
However net retail sales slowed to £695m, the lowest since January 2013.
Mr Godfrey said it was too early to judge whether the lower retail sales represented a change in the trend of strong sales this year.
Net retail sales totalled £15bn until the end of August, compared with £12bn for the first eight months of 2013.
The figures also showed that all asset classes saw lower retail sales in August, compared with recent months.
Asia (including Japan) was the best-selling region for equity funds, with net retail sales of £180m in the month.
The worst-selling IMA sector, for the third consecutive month, was the UK All Companies, with a net retail outflow of £25m.
IMA Sector | Ranking in August 2014 | Net retail salesin August2014 | Rankingin July 2014 | Asset Class |
UK Equity Income | 1 | £376 million | 1 | Equity |
Property | 2 | £242 million | 2 | Property |
Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares | 3 | £159 million | 6 | Mixed Asset |
Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 4 | £149 million | 5 | Equity |
Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares | 5 | £90 million | 4 | Mixed Asset |
Source: IMA
Adviser View
Colin Low, director of Suffolk-based Kingsfleet Wealth, said: “People are looking for a contribution on income so perhaps are looking for a return of, say, 7 per cent. So a decent equity fund will give them 3 per cent and on expectation a growth will give them, say, 4 per cent.
“There are some good strong long-term management houses that people are used to in that space, such as Artemis, Threadneedle and Rathbones. Interestingly I wonder if it is a big push by other retailers to get in that market to get some collateral benefit.”
