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For immediate release: Wednesday 30 August 2006

INVESTMENT FUND STATISTICS
July 2006

Summary  

• Investment funds under management £374 billion (July 2005 £309 billion)
• Total net industry sales £438 million (July 2005 £982 million)
• Net retail sales £654 million (July 2005 £879 million)
• Net ISA sales £125 million (July 2005 £69 million)

Funds under management 
Investment funds under management of £374 billion in July saw a rise of 1% from June and were 21% higher than July 2005. ISA funds under management of £48 billion also rose 1% from the previous month, and were 14% higher than the previous year.

Graph showing funds under management since July 2005.

ISA sales 
Net ISA sales of £125 million in July were over a third less than June but were up 82% from July 2005.

The most popular ISA sector in July was UK All Companies, accounting for 25% of gross ISA sales. 

Net sales by asset class 
Total net sales were £438 million with bonds accounting for inflows of £391 million. Of the £654 million net retail sales £301 million was invested in bonds, followed by £157 in balanced funds.

Graph showing net retail sales over the last 13 months.

Gross retail sales by sector and distribution channel 
The most popular sector was UK All Companies, representing 20% of gross retail sales. The sector was favoured by intermediaries and accounted for 19% of gross retail business through this channel. 

The most popular distribution channel in July was the intermediary channel representing 82% of gross retail business. Gross ISA sales of £256 million from fund supermarkets made them the dominant distributor of ISAs, followed by £168 million through sales force/tied agents.

Best selling sector 
The Specialist sector remained the most popular net retail sector for the seventh consecutive month with inflows of £325 million. £272 million of the sector’s sales was through property funds with intermediaries accounting for 90% of property fund sales.  The sector with the biggest outflows  in July was the UK All Companies with net outflows of £182 million.

Richard Saunders, Chief Executive of the IMA commented:

“This month’s figures show the traditional summer slow down in new investment by retail savers. There continues to be a strong showing by property funds which have accounted for almost 20% of net retail sales since January.”

-Ends-

Glossary

Detailed tables
1. Summary table 
2. Funds under management by asset class
3. Unit trust/OEIC sales
4. Net sales by asset class
5. Gross retail sales – 10 year summary
6. Sector summary – current month
7. Retail business by sector and channel – current month
8. Summary of best and worst selling sectors
9. Funds under management – 13 month chart
10. Net retail sales – 13 month chart
11. Performance of average fund by IMA sector

If you have any comments on presentation of the monthly statistics please e-mail press@investmentuk.org

For further information, please contact:
Mona Patel, Head of Communications, IMA 020 7831 0898
 
Out of hours contact:
Mona Patel, Head of Communications, IMA 07834 089332