Rising from fourth in the net retail sales charts in April, the IA Sterling Strategic Bond sector topped May’s rankings after attracting net inflows of £392m.
Meanwhile having been the worst selling sector in April, with outflows of £277m, the Sterling Corporate Bond sector soared into fifth place in May with net sales of £230m.
On the flip side UK equity funds suffered a torrid month, with both the IA UK All Companies and UK Equity Income sectors experiencing outflows, to the tunes of £532.1m and £23.1m, respectively.
To put these falls into perspective, in March UK All Companies was the best selling sector with inflows of £649.8m, while UK Equity Income ranked fifth best with net sales of £238.5m.
Also falling from grace was last month’s top selling Specialist sector. Having attracted sales of £678.2m in April, the sector slid to ninth in May with inflows dropping to £186.4m.
On a regional basis, European equities recorded their largest monthly inflow since September 2015, with net retail sales of £343m, while sales of Japanese equity funds outstripped US equity funds, with net inflows of £261m.
In total, retail investors allocated £3.6bn to funds in May, making it the fourth best-selling month on record for net retail sales.
Alastair Wainwright, fund market specialist at the IA, said: “For the third month in a row, all asset classes have received positive net retail flows. UK retail investors allocated £1bn to equity, with Global equity funds once again receiving the majority of net equity flows and having the best-selling fund in this month.
“European equities recorded their largest monthly inflow since September 2015 as financial markets on the continent have improved following political and economic developments. Europe ex UK received a net retail inflow of £290m and European Smaller Companies took in £42m. The much smaller Europe inc UK sector took in £11m.”
