Equity funds shed 6.26 bln stg in 2022 Calastone
Record 1.17 billion stg of North American funds sold in 2022
Signs of optimism returned in Q4 but UK funds shunned
Global ESG equity funds saw inflows

LONDON, Jan 5 Reuters Investors sold a record 8.38 billion pounds 10 billion worth of UKfocused equity funds last year, shunning Britain as the country braces for the worst recession among major economies, a global funds network said.

Calastone said on Thursday that investment fund flows in 2022 were the weakest in at least eight years, with 6.29 billion pounds pulled from equity funds as the war in Ukraine helped to drive record inflation and interest rate hikes.

Fleeing into cash and fund categories perceived to be lowerrisk, investors also sold a record 1.17 billion of North American funds the first year of outflows since 2016. Exits from European equity funds hit 2.65 billion pounds, while AsiaPacific funds saw 1 billion pounds of withdrawals.

Calastone said hopes that rate rises across the globe might be tapering off prompted tentative buying in November and December, although investors focused in part on global ESG equity funds and continued to shun UKfocused equities.

Property funds, meanwhile, have been buffeted by outflows, partly because economic downturns snuff out demand for commercial property. But last year, they were the lowest since 2018, with investors withdrawing 535 million pounds one quarter of the 2.14 billion withdrawn in 2011 Calastone said….