LONDON (Reuters) – UK investors put a record 6.97 billion pounds ($8.82 billion) into equity funds in the first quarter, led by demand for North American equities, fund network Calastone said on Thursday.
North American equity funds saw record inflows of 5.72 billion pounds over the quarter, Calastone said in a statement.
“The U.S. earnings recession is over – profits are once again on the up and that seems to be the main catalyst driving fund inflows and higher share prices,” said Edward Glyn, head of global markets at Calastone.
Global and emerging market equity funds also enjoyed inflows, but UK investors continued to withdraw money from domestic equity funds, taking out a total of 2.13 billion pounds over the quarter.
“UK equities are certainly cheap, but investors worry where the growth is going to come from,” Glyn said.
Calastone’s figures, which mainly track retail investor decisions, are not comprehensive, but give a good sense of UK flows.
($1 = 0.7903 pounds)
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Costas Pitas)