Hargreaves Lansdown's clients have switched to bonds and European equities as turbulence has gripped markets.
A monthly review of the most bought funds, covering September, revealed the £5.8bn Jupiter European fund was among the 10 most-bought on the platform while the First State Asia Focus fund, which had been among the top 10 this year to date, dropped out.
Much of the recent market turmoil centres around higher US interest rates, the trade dispute between US President Donald Trump and China, and the impact of these on Asian economies.
Dominic Rowles, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said emerging market funds had been poor performers recently and over the past six months the Investment Association's Global Emerging Markets sector has lost 4.03 per cent.
By contract North American funds have been among the top performers during 2018 and the IA North America sector has returned 19.19 per cent over the past six months.
| The 10 most bought funds by Hargreaves Lansdown clients in September (listed alphabetically) | |
| Baillie Gifford American | |
| Baillie Gifford Global Discovery | |
| Fundsmith Equity | |
| Jupiter European | |
| Legal & General International Index | |
| Legal & General US Index | |
| LF Lindsell Train UK Equity | |
| Lindsell Train Global Equity | |
| Royal London Sterling Extra Yield Bond | |
| Standard Life Global Smaller Companies |
Hargreaves Lansdown clients also invested in the Royal London Extra Yield Bond fund, which has moved into the top 10 biggest sellers.
Higher interest rates are generally regarded as bad for bonds because as yields rise, prices fall.
The fund to drop out of the top 10 was the Marlborough UK MicroCap fund which lost 5.58 per cent over the past three months but still outperformed its sector, the IA UK Smaller Companies, which lost 8.7 per cent.
Meanwhile John Monaghan, research manager at Square Mile funds, said investors were becoming notably more risk averse.
He said visitors to his company’s website were spending less time examining equity funds, with 56 per cent of views being of equity mandates compared with 60 per cent previously, while views of multi asset fund rose by 1 per cent.
The least viewed section on its website was the IA Tech and Telecoms.
david.thorpe@ft.com
