Best performance for a year

The Investment Management Association (IMA) in its Investment Fund Statistics (April 2008) report published on Wednesday 28 May 2008, showed after two extremely modest quarters, net retail sales bounced back in April to £1.5 billion, the best performance for a year. Property funds reversed recent outflows, recording positive flows of some £70 million. And the IMA's new £1.8 billion Absolute Return sector recorded healthy inflows of over £170 million.

UK domiciled funds
Funds under management of UK domiciled investment funds were £450.3 billion in April, a rise of 4 per cent from March 2008 and 2 per cent lower than April 2007. UK domiciled ISA funds under management were £93.5 billion. This figure is not directly comparable with previous releases because of the merger of PEPs in to stocks and shares ISAs.

As of April 2008 PEPs were merged into stocks and shares ISAs. For comparison purposes, IMA ISA data for periods prior to April 2008 combines PEPs and ISAs. This applies to both UK and overseas domiciled fund statistics.

Net sales of UK domiciled investment fund ISAs were £391.1 million in April, higher than the £68.6 million seen in March 2008 but down 31 per cent from the £568.3 million in April 2007.

The most popular UK domiciled ISA sector in April 2008 was UK All Companies, accounting for 17 per cent of gross ISA sales. In net terms the most popular ISA sector was Cautious Managed.

UK domiciled net sale by asset class
Net retail sales in April were £1.5 billion. Of this, £630 million was invested in bond funds, followed by £478 million in equity funds. Institutional holdings of unit trusts and OEICs saw net inflows of £722 million with money market funds accounting for net inflows of £365 million.

Gross retail sales by sector and distribution channel The most popular sector in April 2008 was UK All Companies, representing 13 per cent of gross retail sales of UK domiciled funds.

Best selling sector for UK domiciled funds
The UK Other Bond sector was the most popular UK domiciled net retail sales sector with inflows of £456 million. The sector with the biggest outflows in April 2008 was UK All Companies, with net outflows of £182 million. Property funds saw net retail inflows of £71 million.

Overseas funds
Overseas funds under management of £16.4 billion in April 2008 saw a 4 per cent increase from the previous month. Overseas ISA assets under management were £381 million.

Net retail sales of overseas domiciled funds in April 2008 were £9.8 million. Net retail sales of overseas domiciled investment fund ISAs were £6.6 million April 2008, partly reversing the previous month's outflow of £16.5 million