Passive funds suffer their worst month of outflows on record______

Rising fears over inflation and interest rates, as well as worsening disillusion with UK assets, drove net selling of equity funds in October for the first time in fifteen months. Savers cashed in a net £148m of their equity fund holdings. This is small in the context of total trading volume of £20.5bn, but it pushed Calastone’s FFI:Equity to 49.6, its worst monthly reading since July 2020.

Key highlights from this month’s FFI:

• Equity funds in total saw net outflows in October for the first time in over a year
• The outflow was driven by passive equity funds, which saw record outflows of £709m
• UK-focused equity funds were hit hard by second-worst outflows on record
• Active flows overall were strongly positive thanks to ESG
• Fixed income inflows declined while real estate outflows remained steady

Read this edition of the FFI in full