Using the Lipper Leaders scoring system to analyse the best-performing funds in the IA Sterling Strategic Bond sector.   Sterling Strategic Bond allows investors, should they wish, to outsource the bond portion of their portfolios to one manager. If you don’t fancy the prospect of deciding whether to be long or short duration (a bond portfolio’s sensitivity to interest rate changes), where to be positioned between government, corporate investment grade or high yield debt, local currency or hard currency in emerging markets, or whether to be in emerging markets at all—well, this could be the solution. It is certainly a

Asset class view UK mutual funds and ETFs saw outflows of £6.76bn over February (-£5.12bn ex-MMFs). Equities saw the largest redemptions (-£3.48bn). Active v passive The active-to-passive bond rotation, which has been a feature of the market since 2021, reversed. Some £3.73bn was redeemed from passive bond funds, while their active peers took £1.49bn. Classifications Equity Global was the top-selling classification for the month, netting £1.87bn (£1.18bn active/£689m passive). UK equity funds suffered redemptions of £2.77bn over the month. Sustainable fund flows Sustainable funds netted a total of £367m for the month, conventional funds lost £8.26bn. MMFs were the most

Key Benchmarks Performance Hong Kong’s stock market is turning into one of the biggest winner of Donald Trump’s chaotic first 50 days in office. Its stock market benchmark of Hang Seng Index has surged 13.4% for February and 14.4% for the year-to-date period (as of 2025/2/28), making it one of the world’s top performer. China Shanghai Composite Index also rose 2.2% in February but posted negative return of 0.9% for the year-to-date period. US S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite Index fell behind and posted negative return of 1.4%, 1.6% and 4.0%, separately for February. European markets,

Total flows to mutual funds for February were €76.91bn. This breaks down to: mutual fund flows (+€43.16 bn) and ETFs (+€33.75bn). Bond funds (+€25.83bn) were the best-selling asset type overall for February, followed by MMFs (+€25.28bn) and equity funds (+€23.07bn). ETFs continue to eat passive mutual funds’ lunch, as the former benefitted from inflows of €33.75bn while the latter shed €5.73bn in February (-€2.77bn YTD). European investors allocated €22.99bn into Money Market USD funds—the best-selling classification for the month. Turkish lira MMFs saw the largest sell off (-€3.43bn), with investors reversing their bets on the currency strengthening.   As S&P

Headlines are grim for sustainable investments. But headlines are frequently misleading. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the figures suggest reports of its death may be somewhat premature. First of all, though, a caveat: how one defines “sustainable” greatly affects the calculation, as does the market on which one focuses. Here I’m focusing on the UK market, with a rather restricted definition of “sustainable”: all SFDR Article 9 funds plus those containing indicative sustainable keywords in the name. This gives a narrower universe than, for instance, including all integration-based strategies. What does the data show? Equities finished 2024 as the most successful

Asset class view Money market funds (MMFs) saw the largest inflows, with £6.7bn Bond inflows were less than half of Decembers, at £1.61bn—the lowest since last September’s redemptions. Active v passive Mutual funds and ETFs took £6.4bn over January, with redemptions of £303m excluding MMF. Active equity strategies suffered the largest redemptions, shedding £3.13bn. Classifications Outside of cash, investors favoured US and global equities, alongside USD and GBP investment grade bond funds. UK equity funds suffered redemptions of about £1.7bn over the month. Sustainable fund flows Sustainable flows were positive for MMFs (£33m) and bonds (£133m). Sustainable equity funds suffered

That 2024 was the year for US equities will shock no one, with all eyes on the Magnificent Seven stocks. Investors have been transfixed by AI, and the US mega caps are believed best positioned to deliver them. Nevertheless, this run is more than a gargantuan “meme” run, with the likes of Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia delivering strong earnings, and consensus being that they will continue to do so. To hedge my bets, that’s not a recommendation either way: consensus has often been wrong footed, from the global financial crisis way back to Tulipmania. However, UK fund investors’ 2024 can

European stocks have been a soaring path, with gains surpassing those of U.S. stocks and other major global markets. German’s DAX, France’s CAC 40, Spain’s IBEX 35 and UK’s FTSE 100 rallied by 9.2%, 7.7%, 6.7% and 6.1%, respectively for January. In Asia, Korea market is showing signs of rebounding, aided by low valuation in the second half of last year and fueling the optimism of overall robust fundamentals. Korea’s KOSPI index rallied 4.9% and became the top performing market among all Asia markets for January. US stock markets continued its bull path, Dow Jones Industrial index soared 4.7% and

According to LSEG Lipper’s statistics, as of February 14th 2025, European stocks have been soaring, with gains surpassing those of U.S. stocks and other major global markets. In less than two months, the German stock market has risen by 13.6% while Spain soared by 11.6%, France by 10.6%, and the UK stock market has also seen a rise of 7.2%. European Market Analysis In terms of fundamentals, the European economy is not performing well, and it can even be said to be lackluster. Germany, the largest economy in the Eurozone, has been severely impacted by both the manufacturing and construction

Flows Turn Positive After Two Years in Red Executive Summary   Aggregate flows for the year were £27.78bn (£16.29bn, ex MMFs). Bond funds enjoyed the largest absolute flows, netting £13.7bn. Active funds suffered outflows of £815m (considerably down on 2023’s redemptions of £76.59bn), while passive mutual funds took £25.24bn and ETFs attracted £3.36bn. Equity US netted £19.54bn, dwarfing not just the flow to equity funds overall, but also exceeding the inflows to all long-term investment funds. This was predominantly to active strategies. Equity UK lost £20.89bn, with £15.13bn of this from active strategies. Equity UK Income (-£6.12) and Equity UK

Using the Lipper Leaders scoring system to analyse the best performing funds in the IA UK All Companies sector.   The top seven funds in the Investment Association UK All Companies sector over three years are all value by approach. Value investing was out of fashion for most of the time following the global financial crisis and has recently been eclipsed by the market’s fascination with the “Magnificent Seven” US mega caps. Value investing boils down to buying stocks priced below the investor’s assessment of their fair value, then held until (or, safer to say, “if”) the market recognises that

Key Benchmarks Performance US stock markets corrected from record high in December of 2024. Dow Jones Industrial Index and S&P 500 Index slumped 5.3% and 2.5%, while NASDAQ Composite Index rose 0.5%. Hong Kong Hang Seng Index soared 3.3% in December of 2024 and rallied 17.7% for the whole year of 2024(as of 2024/12/31). China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8% in December of 2024 and rallied 12.7% for the whole year of 2024 (as of 2024/12/31). For the whole year of 2024(as of 2024/12/31), US NASDAQ Composite Index soared 28.6% and became the top leading key benchmark all over global