European fund sales, excluding money market funds, halved to €13.2bn between April and May as cautious investors channelled money out of equity funds, according to figures from Lipper.
The data agency said fund flows “are continuing to yo-yo each month”, contributing to a challenging environment for European asset managers.
Equity funds saw particularly dramatic outflows, plummeting from €13.4bn in sales in April to just €2bn in May, prompting Lipper to comment that “many equity groups will have suffered whiplash yet again”.
Bonds continue to benefit from investors’ fear of equities, with sales of bond funds increasing for the fifth month running to reach €8.5bn in May.
BlackRock had the top sales thanks to high demand for its exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Excluding ETFs, Invesco did best in terms of equities and Templeton performed best for bonds.
©2011 funds europe
