Barclays Sees Investors Seeking Shelter in Cash Funds
Although specialist sectors were popular with investors in 2007, cash funds dominated the fund flows, according to Barclays Stockbrokers. Money market funds accounted for 39% of assets invested in 2007 through Barclays Stockbrokers and much of this can be attributed to the market volatility at the end of last year. Up until Q3, fund flows were positive, with investors buying a mixture of cautious and growth investments, but the focus very much shifted to cash investments in the latter half of the year. Despite this, Gartmore China Opportunities fund was the third most popular fund purchased through the Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market in 2007. Investors were more cautious in their 2007 investment decisions compared to those made in 2006 when the specialist and global emerging market sectors were the most popular with investors. This has been replaced with a focus on money market and UK equity income funds in 2007. Yet the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) sector showed unparalleled growth in 2007 moving from sixth in 2006 to second place in 2007. In terms of individual funds, the specialist sectors ranked high, with JPMorgan Natural Resources and Blackrock Merrill Lynch Gold & General ranking fourth and fifth respectively by assets invested.
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