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Embargoed until: 12.00 noon: Monday 29 October 2001

 

INVESTMENT FUND STATISTICS 

SEPTEMBER 2001  

 

 

  • Investment funds under management - £213 billion

  • Gross industry sales down 44% to £2.7 billion (£4.8 billion – September 2000)

  • Gross retail sales down by 46% to £1.6 billion (£2.9 billion – September 2000)

  • Gross ISA sales down by 45% to £376 million (£682 million – September 2000)

The events of September further depressed an already sluggish market.  At the end of September, the FTSE 100 was 8% down on the month and the Dow Jones by 12%.  This is reflected in an 11% fall in investment funds under management.  Total net investment funds sales of £92.2 million were 92% down on September 2000 (£1.1 billion), with net ISA sales of £235.8 million, 62% less for the same period (£617 million).  However, there is no sign of investors abandoning the stockmarket, as repurchase volumes are also lower than those for recent months and 29% less than last year (£3.7bn).  Although ISA repurchases continue to increase (as would be expected with a maturing product), ISA investors made only 9% of retail redemptions. 

 

Redemptions  (£m)

Retail

ISA

Institutional

September

1,538

140

1,098

August

1,582

135

1,212

July

1,773

126

1,139

June

1,859

108

  4,762*

May

1,782

108

1,056

April

1,473

 84

   693

 

*This included a withdrawal of over £2bn by a single investor, which had an impact

on a number of groups.

The spread of unit trust and OEIC ISA investment remains little changed from August, with investors continuing to favour UK funds.  39% of all investment fund ISAs were sold through Sales Forces/Tied Agents, with IFAs responsible for 34% of gross sales and the direct channel accounting for 27%.

Clare Arber, Head of Communications at AUTIF, commented:

“It is reassuring to see that investors have stayed calm and not rushed to cash in their holdings.  However, they remain reluctant to entrust their savings to the stockmarket.  Whereas previously it was more a case of consumers not understanding the potential for investing in times of low market values and economic slowdown, now it is one of waiting until investors regain their confidence in equity markets. 

 “The volatility and uncertainty, caused by the attacks on the US and subsequent events, continue to deter further investment.  How long it will take for consumers to start investing again, we just don’t know.”

The regular savings statistics show a slight decline in the number of plans and contributions made over the three months to end of September, but both are an increase on the same period last year.  There are currently over 2.1 million plans in operation, attracting contributions of £549.6, £464million being invested through almost 1.8 million ISAs.

Regular Savings Plans: Q3 2001 (1st July 2001 to 30 September 2001)

 

Q1 1999

Q2 1999

Q3 1999

Q4 1999

Q1 2000

Q2 2000

Q3 2000

Q4 2000

PEP/ISA

1,759,588

1,342,113

1,165,696

1,340,003

1,408,040

1,508,137

1,593,089

1,657,533

Non PEP/ISA

256,867

298,615

321,891

274,382

294,794

357,795

366,294

362,485

Total

2,016,455

1,640,728

1,487,587

1,614,385

1,702,834

1,865,932

1,959,383

2,020,018

 

 

Q1 2001

Q2 2001

Q3 2001

Q4 2001

Q1 2002

Q2 2002

Q3 2002

Q4 2002

PEP/ISA

1,745,627

1,802,493

1,776,807

 

 

 

 

 

Non-PEP/ISA

368,944

378,458

370,129

 

 

 

 

 

Total

2,114,571

2,180,951

2,146,936

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sales: mn 

 

Q1 1999

Q2 1999

Q3 1999

Q4 1999

Q1 2000

Q2 2000

Q3 2000

Q4 2000

PEP/ISA

£431.0

£243.6

£321.3

£351.3

£386.3

£421.2

£448.0

£459.4

Non-PEP/ISA

£84.3

£70.6

£60.4

£54.8

£60.1

£79.5

£68.1

£99.4

Total

£515.3

£314.2

£381.7

£406.2

£446.4

£500.7

£516.2

£558.9

 

 

Q1 2001

Q2 2001

Q3 2001

Q4 2001

Q1 2002

Q2 2002

Q3 2002

Q4 2002

PEP/ISA

£475.9

£465.2

£464.0

 

 

 

 

 

Non-PEP/ISA

£85.9

£92.1

£85.6

 

 

 

 

 

Total

£561.8

£557.3

£549.6