UK Investors Set Record with $34 Billion in Stocks for 2024
LONDON (Reuters) - UK investors added a record 27.2 billion pounds ($34 billion) to their stock holdings in 2024, funds network Calastone said on Wednesday, as a surge in investments in index-tracker funds dominated.
The net inflows into equities topped the previous highest mark of 19.8 billion pounds set in 2021 in Calastone's 10-year data set, with surging inflows into passive products behind the jump, up from 8 billion pounds of inflows in 2023.
The popularity of index-tracking products offered by the likes of U.S. investment giants BlackRock and Vanguard has been reshaping the investment industry, putting pressure on mid-sized players specialising in actively-managed products.
Passive products accounted for 29.6 billion pounds of inflows last year - more than the previous four years combined - while actively-managed funds by contrast shed 2.4 billion pounds.
Global equity funds were the favoured strategy for investors, generating 19.5 billion pounds of inflows in 2024, with North American funds accounting for 11.9 billion of that as US markets surged.
UK-focused funds suffered a ninth year of outflows at 9.6 billion pounds.
Inflows into fixed income funds fell sharply to 1.3 billion pounds, down from 7.7 billion pounds the prior year, as weak bond markets in the summer contributed to subdued appetite.
Investors added a net 2.9 billion pounds to equity funds overall in December to end the year and added 867 million pounds to fixed income funds.
($1 = 0.8003 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Ros Russell; Iain.Withers@thomsonreuters.com)
