Proactive Investors – British investors ploughed the most cash into equity funds in a decade in the first half of the year, though until last month most of it was into North American funds.
Investors added £1.7 billion to equity fund holdings in June, taking the total for the first six months of the year to £11.4 billion, funds data from Calastone showed, up from £700 million a year earlier. It was highest total since the data started being collected by the firm 10 years ago.
The main trends from the first five months of the year were turned on their head in June.
Inflows to North American equities funds abruptly dried up in June, with £0.6 million withdrawn, having absorbed £7.8 billion of inflows over the first half as a whole.
Outflows from UK-focused funds slowed modestly last month but still £522 million flowed out of the sector, taking the total to £3.75 billion over the six months. Calastone said the last two weeks of June saw significantly less selling out of UK funds than the first two weeks.
Global funds were the second largest source of inflows at £7.6 billion, and were the popular category in June with a net £1.4 billion.
European equities were second in June, taking a net £714 million, while emerging markets funds saw inflows return after two months of net selling.
“Hopes for cheaper money after the painful rate squeeze of the last two-and-a-half years are the clear driver of record flows into equity funds so far this year,” said Edward Glyn, head of global markets at Calastone.
“All eyes are trained on the world’s central banks, looking for signals that long-awaited rate cuts from the Fed and the Bank of England”.
Citing one possible reason for June’s slowing of US fund interest, is that market valuations are “not cheap”, Glyn said.
“By contrast, large markets such as the UK and Europe are trading on less challenging valuations, while many emerging markets are set to benefit from the weaker dollar and a nascent commodity boom.”
Bond funds
Investors withdrew capital from bond funds for the second month in a row, pulling £471 million from their holdings in June, and taking the two-month total to £1.11 billion.
“The outflows from fixed income funds in the last two months are harder to understand,” said Glyn.
“If investors truly believe rates are coming down and will stay low, then there are capital gains to be made in the bond markets.
“Perhaps the allure of equities simply looks too strong at present.”
Since the beginning of 2022, bond funds have seen inflows more than twice as large as equity funds, at £8.3 billion versus £4.0 billion, so Glyn said the current picture “may simply reflect a rebalancing of investor appetite”.
