Funds industry gets a breather
The funds management industry was given a respite from lacklustre markets in the second quarter of 2003, stimulating an improvement in the net inflow position compared to the previous two quarters, according toAssirt.
The research house’s Market Share Report June Quarter 2003 shows net fund inflows over the quarter of $1.6 billion outstripped the poor inflows of $435 million in the previous March 2003 quarter.
The positive inflows helped to raise the value of the Australian retail market 4.5 per cent from $234.6 billion in the March 2003 quarter to $245.1 billion at 30 June 2003.
UBS Asset Managementagain topped the inflows by manager over the quarter, posting $511 million, up from $469 million last quarter, due to strong flows into its Australian share fund and other fund offerings.
AXA,Platinum,ING/ANZ andChallengerall continued to feature in the top ten managers by inflows this quarter, with a mixture of increased and decreased inflows when compared with last quarter.
Despite overall positive market inflows, Australian equity funds recorded negative flows of $23 million for the quarter, only the second time since the inception of the Assirt report that net outflows were reported.
By contrast, overseas equity net inflows improved, rising from a positive $130 million in the March quarter to $327 million in June.
Assirt says that multi-sector funds continued their decline, posting an overall outflow of $360 million for the quarter, though this was an improvement on the outflows of $1.9 billion in the previous quarter.
Despite the constant decline in this sector of the market, multi-sector funds still represent 44 per cent almost of the managed funds market, according to Assirt.
The quarter saw no change in the relative ranking of fund managers by size, with almost all managers experiencing increases of funds under management ranging from 0.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent.
The big four banks continue to dominate, according to Assirt, representing 54 per cent of the industry by size, with the top five managers, the big 4 banks and AMP, representing 66 per cent.
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