Investor concerns impairs equity UCITS fund sales

Investors have been concerned over the global economic outlook, leading to suffering equity UCITS funds in April, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has revealed.

Publishing its latest Investment Fund Industry Fact Sheet, which provides information about the net sales of ICOTS and AIFs for April 2019, EFAMA said equity fund sales were “impaired” – equity funds registered net outflows of €13bn, compared to net outflows of €23bn in March.

EFAMA also recorded a positive April for net sales of AIFs, with net inflows of €17bn, compared to net outflows of €8bn in March. Total net assets of UCITS and AIFs increased by 1.5 per cent to €16.6trn.

The statistics over the main developments in April 2019 revealed that net sales of UCITS and AIFs totalled €43bn, up from €6bn in March, while UCITS registered net inflows of €27bn, compared with €13bn in March.

UCITS excluding money market funds, or long-term UCITS, recorded net inflows of €14bn, EFAMA reported, €2bn less than March, when it saw inflows of €16bn. Net sales of bond funds dropped to €25bn from €43bn.

Multi-asset funds recorded net inflows of €4bn, compared to net outflows of €2bn in March, and UCITS money market funds recorded net inflows of €13bn, compared to net outflows of €2bn.

EFAMA senior director for economics and research Bernard Delbecque commented: “Despite encouraging economic data and stock market gains, equity UCITS funds continued to suffer net outflows in April, which suggests that investors remained concerned about the global economic outlook.”

The fact sheet uses net sales data provided by 29 associations, representing 98 per cent of total UCITS and AIF assets.

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