In April, British investors added record new capital to equity funds for the second month in a row. Net inflows hit a record £2.98 billion and took the year-to-date total to £7.93bn, easily the best start to a year since Calastone began recording figures in 2015. The last six months have seen four of the best months of inflows to equity funds on record. At 55.7, Calastone’s FFI:Equity was the most positive reading since April 2020.

Latest in from our FFI: In April, British investors added record new capital to #equity #funds for the second month in a row. Net inflows hit a record £2.98 billion and took the year-to-date total to £7.93bn: https://t.co/dymc6XZPZB pic.twitter.com/IbLTdLSI9m

— Calastone (@CalastoneLtd) May 12, 2021

Key highlights from this month’s FFI:

• Record inflows see £2.98bn added to global equity funds in April – marking the second consecutive month of record inflows into equities
• The last six months have seen four of the best on record for equity fund inflows
• Year-to-date total inflows into equity funds reached £7.93bn – the best on record since the FFI launched in 2015
• Investors favour global, North American and UK funds, with demand for European equity funds waning
• Active funds continue to fight back hard against passives, seeing more inflows in five of the last six months – in April active inflows came in comfortably higher than passive
• ESG has contributed to active management recently, but in April conventional active funds easily won out
• Total inflows across all asset classes hit a record £6.1bn in April

Source: Calastone