Morningstar: Passive equity funds rally while active experience continued outflows

Morningstar: Passive equity funds rally while active experience continued outflows

Fixed Income Equity
Aandelenkoersen

Morningstar today published its European Asset Flows data and commentary for February 2024.

Key takeaways include:  

  • Europe-domiciled long-term funds experienced EUR 19.4 billion of net inflows in February 2024.
  • Equity funds were in positive territory for the second consecutive month, collecting EUR 5.1 billion in February and EUR 13.5 billion year to date. It was a one-sided story, with passive equity funds taking in EUR 19.1 billion of net inflows in the month, while active equity funds bled again.
  • Fixed-income strategies had another strong month, with EUR 30.9 billion of net inflows in February. This followed a strong January with EUR 31.8 billion of net inflows, which marked the strongest month since July 2021.
  • Bonds were the only category that saw positive inflows in both active and passive strategies.
  • Allocation and alternative funds continued to bleed assets with EUR 9.9 billion and EUR 2.0 billion of net outflows, respectively.
  • Article 8 fund posted net inflows of EUR 5.4 billion, the second consecutive positive month for the category after seven months of outflows; conversely, Article 9 products shed EUR 2.1 billion.
  • Global large-cap blend equity was the top-selling Morningstar Category in the month, followed by fixed-term bond funds. On the other hand, other allocation and sector-equity ecology thematic funds saw the highest net outflows at the category level, followed by EUR flexible allocation global.
  • UBS topped the ranking of asset-gatherers in February as it continued to transfer funds from Credit Suisse, which saw the largest outflows in February.
  • Pimco GIS Income Fund had inflows of EUR 1.96 billion in February, while iShares Core € Corp Bond ETF topped the list of outflows with EUR 2.1 billion in net redemptions.
  • Money market funds saw EUR 9.4 billion walk out the door, which marked the first negative month since June 2023.
  • Assets in long-term funds domiciled in Europe increased to EUR 13.088 trillion by month's end from EUR 12.899 trillion at the end of January.