German retail investors targeted euro bond funds with short-term maturity dates in May, though flows were positive to all three main fund groups: bond, equity and balanced.
Total sales into retail open-ended bond funds were €3.5 billion, with €1.6 billion of those sales into short maturity funds.
Short-maturity bonds are seen as less risky during an environment when interest rates are expected to rise – as are short duration bonds, though it has been warned that investors may not get the protection they expect from this latter group of funds.
Bond funds’ assets under management (AUM) in Germany came to €202.3 billion at the end of the month, though equity funds – which reached an all-time high in Germany in June – still topped bonds, with €373.3 billion of AUM.
Equity funds saw inflows of €1.3 billion, according to official industry figures from the trade body, BVI.
Overall, German-domiciled funds saw inflows of €19 billion during the month. €10.9 billion was invested in open-ended Spezialfonds, which are for institutional investors, while open-ended retail funds accounted for €7.8 billion.
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