Revealed: Top selling funds and biggest losers in 2011

Asset managers have struggled to keep investors on board in the face of 2011’s extreme market volatility, which has hit short-term performance on many funds.

In terms of inflows, the big winners to emerge this year are absolute-return style strategies which have proven attractive to investors seeking safe havens and capital protection.

The popularity of Standard Life Investments' Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) fund has grown throughout the year, with the fund perceived as a harbour in challenging markets.

Euan Munro and team's multi-asset fund has returned 32.3% in the three years since the credit crunch and produced a positive return of 0.7% over the past year, beating the majority of absolute return funds which posted losses.

The fund has drawn in £2.3bn of assets throughout the year, according to data from FE.

The £4.5bn Newton Real Return, managed by Iain Stewart, has pulled in £2.1bn and rewarded investors with a 3.3% return this year.

The M&G Optimal Income and M&G Recovery have both benefitted from their past records of producing returns in swinging markets, with investors pumping £2.1bn into Richard Woolnough's Optimal Income, while Tom Dobell's Recovery fund has gained £1.1bn in assets.

Other funds to make the top ten for inflows this year include the £2.3bn Ruffer Total Return and the £1.2bn M&G Dividend funds.

In contrast, investors have pulled money out of several high profile funds as star managers lost their shine in the short term.

BlackRock's Mark Lyttleton has had a tough year, with his £1.3bn UK Absolute Alpha fund falling 5.9% over the 12 months to 2 December. The portfolio has seen £692m of outflows from investors over the period, equivalent to 33% of assets.

However, Lyttleton's long-term performance figures are better, with the fund returning 18.4% on a five year view.

Fidelity's Sanjeev Shah has been sticking by his overweight to banks, although this has hit returns on the £2.2bn fund. The fund posted a fall of 9.4% this year, compared to the IMA UK All Companies sector average fall of 1.7%, and investors have withdrawn a total of £534m.