GLOBAL - Assets held in investment funds grew to over €17trn in the first quarter of this year but figures presented by European trade association EFAMA suggest European investors may have played safe when shifting assets from equities in the March downturn.

Details of the International Statistical Release unveiled by the European Fund And Asset Management Association indicate while global assets in funds rose 3.4% in Q1 2007, there was a significant outflow of €3bn from European listed stocks compared with a net inflow of €28bn in Q4 2006.

At the same time, European bond funds saw inflows of €9bn but European investors appear to have sought even safer ground during that time as there was a net inflow of €53bn into money market funds during that period, compared with just €6bn in the previous three months.

There was a correction in the global equity markets in March so it is likely to be no surprise to asset management houses to find net flows to bond funds rose 58% from €31bn to €53bn while US money market funds also saw net flow fall by more than half to €51bn from €112bn in the fourth quarter of 2006.

According to the EFAMA and the Investment Company Institute findings, assets in equity funds accounted for 48% of all worldwide investment assets to the end of March 2007, while bond and money market funds both held a 18% share and balanced funds held 10% of assets.

And while the US still the largest proportion of assets, at 47% of the total, Europe followed with 34.5%, Australia had 4.7% of the market, then Japan with 3.1% of investment assets, Brazil with 3%, and Hong Kong and Canada with 2.7% and 2.5% respectively.

In Europe itself, assets held in funds totalled almost €7.9trn, Luxembourg still being the largest market with net assets of just under €2trn, while France attracted €1.5trn of net assets, Germany pulled €1trn and the UK encouraged net funds totalling €835bn.

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