German retail investors in January triggered the largest level of monthly fund net inflows since October 2015 in what was described as a “strong start to the year”.
Fund groups registered €4.7 billion of net inflows during the month from retail investors and €17.2 billion in total including institutions, according to figures out today from the German funds association, BVI.
This put January retail sales ahead of the UK retail market, where fund managers hope to recover from a slowdown in net sales last year. In January UK funds saw just £366 million (€429 million) of retail sales.
Last year also saw sales of Ucits funds halved, mainly after a stock market sell off in January 2016.
Most of Germany’s retail flows went to ‘balanced’ funds (€3.3 billion), which reflects the UK trend for mixed asset funds, which in January was the UK’s best selling asset class.
However, Germans showed a high level of interest in property funds, which in January were the second most popular fund type, with €1.3 billion of sales. January marked the strongest month for open-ended property fund sales for seven years, the BVI said. Property fund sales outstripped equity sales, while bond funds saw net outflows.
Fund companies in Germany managed net assets of €2.8 trillion at the end of January.
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