Hargreaves Lansdown reveals most bought funds list

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Hargreaves Lansdown reveals most bought funds list

Funds that use the growth style of investing were most popular with investors on the Hargreaves Lansdown platform in June.

This type of investing typically thrives when interest rates and bond yields are low, and performs less well when rates increase.

US interest rates have been rising for some time, and there is an expectation in the market that UK rates will also increase.

That should, according to Alistair Mundy, one of the best known managers in the UK to deploy the value style of investing, lead to growth as a style of investing doing less well.

David Keir, who runs the £130m Saracen Global Income and Growth fund, said the policy of quantitative easing pursued by central banks since the global financial crisis has extended the market cycle and created the conditions for the growth phase to last much longer than is typically the case.

Marcus Brookes, head of the multi-manager team at Schroders, has positioned some of his portfolios for value to do better in the coming years.

Two funds from Edinburgh-based fund house Baillie Gifford were among the top 10 most bought into by Hargreaves Lansdown clients in June.

The £1.7bn Baillie Gifford American fund, which is run by head of US equities Tom Slater, Gary Robinson and others, was among the most popular. 

The fund is the top performer in the IA North America sector over the past one, three and five years to 29 July.

It has returned 183 per cent over the past five years, compared with 102 per cent for the sector average.

The second Baillie Gifford fund to make the list is Global Discovery. This is a £630m fund managed by Douglas Brodie.

In common with several other mandates run by Baillie Gifford, the fund has significant investments in the biotechnology and technology sectors.

It has returned 37 per cent over the past year to 29 July, compared with 10 per cent for the average fund in the IA Global sector in the same time period.

Nick Train is the only manager to have two funds run by him make the top 10, his £5.4bn Lindsell Train UK Equity fund and £4.8bn Lindsell Train Global Equity funds.

Both of those funds are among the top 25 per cent of funds in their sector over the past five years.

Both Mr Train and the managers of the Baillie Gifford funds mentioned above favour the growth style of investing.

This typically thrives when interest rates and bond yields are low, and performs less well when rates rise.

Mr Train's view is that technological disruption has caused the breakdown of traditional market trends such as value versus growth.

Terry Smith's Fundsmith Equity fund, which has grown to £16.5bn in size the eight years since it launched, is another growth focused fund to feature in the top 10.

Mr Smith has more than £200m of his own money in the fund.

Ten most popular funds, in alphabetical order:

Baillie Gifford American

Baillie Gifford Global Discovery

First State Asia Focus Equity

Jupiter Global Value Equity

Lindsell Train Global Equity

LF Lindsell Train UK Equity

Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth

Royal London Sterling Extra Yield Bond  Standard Life Global Smaller Companies

Hargreaves Lansdown investment analyst Dominic Rowles said: "Most major stock markets lost money in June. Asia and emerging markets were the biggest losers. Tensions between the US and China escalated over (US president) Donald Trump's threats to introduce more tariffs, and this didn't help.

"The US stock market was one of few that made money for UK investors, helped by the dollar gaining strength against sterling.

"Lots of investors favoured funds with the freedom to invest anywhere. Worldwide diversification means any issues affecting one area should have a limited effect on the fund. Investors chose to go global in a number of different ways."

david.thorpe@ft.com