Vaccine optimism sees equity fund inflows surge to 5-year high in Q4______

Inflows to equity funds surged to £2.4bn in December, according to the latest Fund Flow Index from Calastone, the largest global funds network. This was the second-best month on record and took the Q4 total to £4.6bn, its highest since mid-2015. For the whole of 2020, equity inflows were £7.5bn, almost four times as great as in 2019.

Some of the key highlights from this month’s FFI:

  • Equity funds enjoyed £4.6bn of inflows in Q4, the highest since 2015; December was the second-best month on record for equity funds
  • 2020 ended with a sharp improvement for active funds in particular – December inflows were the best in five years
  • Investor appetite for ESG, global, North American and European funds boosted active equity fund flows
  • But index fund flows comfortably beat active fund flows over the course of the whole year
  • By contrast with other regions, funds focused on UK equities were firmly out of favour with investors – Brexit and the pandemic caused sharp outflows in the second half of the year
  • UK-focused funds did receive a last-minute boost in late December thanks to the Brexit trade deal
  • ESG funds went mainstream in 2020 and accounted for more than half of all the flows into equity funds for the year

View this edition of the FFI in full

View this edition of the FFI in full
View other editions of the Fund Flow Index

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