Net sales of investment funds in Europe were at their lowest in November - apart from bonds - as investors worried about the new Covid-19 Omicron variant while awaiting reactions by the world’s central banks to rising inflation, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) said on Monday.
Net sales of funds, as defined by Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), totalled 72 billion euro in November, down from 74 billion a month earlier.
UCITS funds recorded inflows of 79 billion euro in November, down from 109 billion in October.
Equity funds saw a marked decline to 14 billion euro in November compared to 24 billion a month earlier. Net sales of multi-asset funds amounted to 13 billion euro, down from 15 billion the previous month.
Bond funds, on the other hand, saw net inflows of 12 billion euro, up from 3 billion in October.
“Net sales of UCITS equity funds fell in November to their lowest level of 2021 amidst concerns about the Covid-19 omicron variant and the monetary policy reaction to the surge of inflation,” said Bernard Delbecque, Senior Director for Economics and Research at EFAMA.
Sales of long-term UCITS, which exclude money market funds, remained steady at 44 billion euro.
Alternative Investment Funds saw net outflows of 8 billion euro in November, compared to net outflows of 36 billion a month earlier.
Total net assets in Europe increased 0.8 percent in November to 21.49 trillion euro.
EFAMA said its monthly data is based on 29 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Kingdom.