Key findings from Morningstar’s latest report on European asset flows include:
- Michael Hasenstab’s Templeton Global Total Return, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze, drew in EUR 2.0 billion, the fund’s highest monthly inflow tracked by Morningstar, pushing its inflows for the first four months of this year to EUR 6.3 billion.
- April saw three funds from Italian promoters catapult into the list of those with the highest monthly inflows. UBI SICAV High Yield Bond, jointly run by Unione Banche Italiane and Pramerica, enjoyed inflows of EUR 1.2 billion. Two allocation funds, Eurizon Cedola Attiva Maggio 2018 and Eurizon Cedola Attiva Piu Maggio 2018, gathered net EUR 657 million and EUR 624 million, respectively. Both are fixed-term funds expiring in 2018, and the flows reflect sales during their initial subscription period.
- Global Index Etisk, a global large-cap blend fund, and Schroder UK Alpha Plus suffered the greatest outflows in April, the latter losing EUR 1.0 billion in assets in just two months. The Morningstar UK large-cap blend category continued its streak of heavy net redemptions, shedding EUR 1.5 billion in April.
- Alternative funds received EUR 3.1 billion of inflows, with a third of April’s inflows going to the Standard Life Global Absolute Return Strategies.
- PIMCO collected EUR 4.6 billion to top the list of highest inflows at the group level.
- Funds in the Morningstar Japan large-cap equity category brought in EUR 1.1 billion in April, its highest monthly inflow since February 2007.
- Money market funds saw modest inflows in April, after outflows of EUR 6.8 billion for the first four months of 2013.
Ali Masarwah from Morningstar’s European Fund Flows team comments:
“A close look at the fund categories with the highest April inflows reveals that the run on bond funds is a search for yield in the face of historically low interest rates rather than a flight to safety. Five out of the 10 top-selling categories were in the fixed income category. Indeed, the bond boom is illustrated by the speed with which the corporate bond losses are recaptured after setbacks that are obviously perceived to be buying opportunities—the Cyprus crisis that shook credit markets in April is just the latest example.”
Full report can be reached at this LINK.
