Retail sales positive but equities still out of favour in 'damp squib' ISA season

Investors return to funds ahead of ISA deadline

Net retail sales turned positive in March, after two months of large outflows at the start of the year, but investors continued to exit UK equity funds, the latest statistics from the Investment Association (IA) reveals.

Total net retail sales for March were positive with inflows of £379m, after outflows of £436m and £399m in January and February respectively during a volatile start to 2016.  Ahead of the ISA deadline, fixed income funds were the best-selling asset class with net sales of £235m, following by mixed asset funds at £190m and money market funds at £141m. However, equity funds saw a net retail outflow of £459m. This is the third month in a row that the asset class has seen outflows.  The biggest hit was in UK equities, which suffered £430m in outflows. Global and Japanese equity fund...