Morningstar: Inflows more than halved in European long-term and equity funds

Europe-domiciled long-term and equity funds suffered a significant fall in inflows for the month of February, according to data from Morningstar.

Long-term funds recorded net inflows of €21.7bn, less than half of January's intake, while equity funds took in €7.7bn, a third of January's volume.

Assets in long-term funds dropped slightly from €10.7trn in January, to €10.6trn at the end of February.

February proved another positive month for fixed income funds, which received €17.3bn of net inflows across both passive and active strategies.

Similarly, long-term Article 8 funds gathered €13bn in new net subscriptions, while Article 9 funds attracted around €1.3bn in the month.

On the category front, investors sought global emerging markets equity and large-cap blend equity funds the most, Morningstar found.

At the same time, France equity funds had their worst month on record, with €4.3bn leaving the category, and precious metals suffered similar outflows.

In terms of single asset managers, BlackRock received the largest volume of inflows with €2.5bn, excluding money market funds. Storebrand Fonder followed with €2.3bn.

By contrast, Société Générale lost nearly €4bn in February, while Amundi recorded €2.7bn in outflows.

On a fund level, Pimco GIS Income attracted €1.8bn, followed by iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, whereas the largest redemptions were seen in the iShares Core € Corporate Bond ETF and Mercer Passive Global High Yield Bond fund.

Money market funds also saw significant outflows, shedding €4.2bn in February.

Valerio Baselli, senior international editor at Morningstar, said investors took "their foot off the gas" in February despite a strong start of the year, partially caused by the continued rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England.

This article was first posted by sister website Investment Week