Bond funds were the strongest sellers globally in both May and year-to-date, according to data from Thomson Reuters Lipper.
But equity funds produced stronger returns – 11.6% in the year until the end of May, compared to bond funds, which made returns of 5.7% during the same period, the data showed.
Some $69.1 billion (€62 billion) of new money for May went into bond funds, which capped a 12-month run of strong flows into this fund category.
Bond funds have seen $363.2 billion in the five months up to the end of May.
At least German investors would have benefited from the higher equity returns as recent data from the BVI, Germany’s funds industry trade body, showed assets in German-domiciled equity funds and balanced funds reached an all-time high in April.
Investors confidence has also been edging up recently, which would normally spell greater appetite for equities.
Meanwhile, the Lipper data showed assets under management in the global collective investment funds market grew 1.9% in May to $42.68 trillion.
Compared to a year before, assets had jumped by $4.88 trillion.
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