May saw the European mutual fund industry in positive territory with €1.3 billion of net investments – though equity funds were hit.
Equity funds, as measured by Lipper, saw €10.3 billion of outflows with investors seeking safe-haven assets. Bond funds enjoyed €7.8 billion in inflows.
Alternative Ucits and real estate funds were also popular, gaining €2.5 billion and €0.9 billion, respectively. The commodity rally also appears to still have provided some momentum with €800 million of inflows to commodity funds last month.
Germany had the highest inflows in May, with €1.9 billion, followed by Switzerland (€1.1 billion), Norway (€0.8 billion) and the United Kingdom (€600 million).
Belgium saw the most outflows with €2.7 billion, followed by the Netherlands and Luxembourg, losing €1.4 billion and €1.2 billion, respectively.
Once again, the best sector was Euro corporate bonds following the European Central Bank’s March policy decision to extend asset purchasing to investment grade corporate bonds.
Lipper recently noted that some £38 billion (€47.8 billion) flowed out from UK mutual funds over a 12-month period as Brexit fears took hold of markets.
©2016 funds europe
