Net retail sales were over £1 billion for the tenth consecutive month at £1.1 billion, up from £537 million from last year, while the UK and Europe were the best-selling regions for equity funds, according to the latest monthly figures from the Investment Management Association for January.

Net retail sales were over £1 billion($1.67 billion) for the tenth consecutive month at £1.1 billion, up from £537 million from last year, while the UK and Europe were the best-selling regions for equity funds, according to the latest monthly figures from the Investment Management Association for January.

Equity continues to be the best-selling asset class into 2014 with net retail sales of £464 million in January, followed by property, with net retail sales of £232 million, and mixed asset with net retail sales of £213 million. The fixed income asset class saw a net outflow of £229 million.

For the third month in a row, UK equity funds were the best-selling region with net retail sales of £644 million. European equity funds were the second best-selling with net retail sales of £261 million, followed by Asian equity funds with a net retail outflow of £235 million and North American funds with an outflow of £149 million. Global equity funds saw a net retail outflow of £81 million, the first net retail outflow since November 2011.

UK fund platforms continued to see the highest gross retail sales at £6.4 billion, representing a 53 per cent market share, up from 44 per cent in January 2013. Gross retail sales for other totalled £4.8 billion in January 2014, a market share of 40 per cent, up from 48 per cent in January 2013. Direct gross retail sales in January 2014 were £871 million, representing a market share of 7 per cent, the same as in January 2013.

For the five fund platforms that provide data to the IMA (Cofunds, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Skandia and Transact) net sales for January 2014 were £1 billion. Funds under management for the five fund platforms at the end of January 2014 were £162 billion, compared with £138 billion a year earlier. Unwrapped products had the highest net sales at £604 million, followed by personal pensions (£290 million) and ISAs (£162 million). Insurance bonds saw a net outflow of £19 million.

Net retail sales for funds of funds in January 2014 were £116 million. Net retail sales of funds of funds with different asset management firms were £120 million. However, there was a net outflow of £5 million from funds of funds invested into the same firm’s funds.

Funds under management for funds of funds were at £86.4 billion as at the end of January 2014, accounting for 11.4 per cent of industry funds under management, compared with 11.3 per cent in January 2013.

Tracker funds saw net retail sales of £245 million for January, while funds under management for tracker funds were £72 billion. Their overall share of total funds under management was 9.5 per cent, compared with 9.1 per cent in January 2013.

Net retail sales of ethical funds were £32 million, funds under management for ethical funds were £8.9 billion at the end of January and net retail sales of overseas-domiciled funds were £145 million.