Sales of long-term funds (excluding money market funds), reached €22.3 billion (around $36 billion) in November 2012, bringing the year-to-date total to €191 billion, according to data from Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company.

The findings indicate that making full-year figures of €200 billion in net sales now seems more than likely. Similarly, cross-border funds, which currently make up 43 per cent of the European funds industry’s assets under management, seem likely to hit the same €200 billion mark by year-end, having so far attracted €187.2 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, bond funds also logged inflows, totalling €20.7 billion, the fifth consecutive month above the €20 billion mark, bringing net sales of funds in the asset class over the year-to-date to €204.3 billion. While inflows to the most popular bond sectors were generally lower than for the previous month, activity still remained healthy for global, emerging market (€3.1 billion, of which €1.4 billion related to local currency funds) and high yield funds (€2.2 billion) also.

Unloved equity funds

Contrastingly, the research shows that equity funds continue to struggle to find a sustained stream of new investment, with flows falling into negative territory (-€940 million), although equity funds sold cross-border attracted €2.1 billion in November. Once more, investors were willing to buy emerging market equities (GEM €2.1billion; China €870 million; Asia ex-Japan €570 million), but outflows from developed market products tended to be mired in the red, notably funds investing in UK (-€820 million) and eurozone equities (-€660 million).

In addition, the data finds that when money market funds are included, November’s total is less positive, with net sales of €15.1 billion, as investors withdrew from euro and sterling denominated funds.

In a broader look at the market, Lipper’s research shows that five groups attracted net sales of more than €1 billion in November: PIMCO (€3.2 billion), AXA (€2.1 billion), Standard Life (€1.2 billion), Aberdeen (€1.1 billion) and Nordea (€1 billion). €10 billion looks to be the target for groups wanting to be in the top five best sellers in the full-year figures.