Coronavirus fears drive £1.6bn of equity fund outflows in one week

Global equity funds saw worst week on record

The coronavirus-induced market sell-off caused almost £1.6bn of outflows from equity funds in just one week, according to Calastone's February Fund Flow Index (FFI), as global stockmarkets suffered their biggest drawdown since the throes of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

Some 98% of outflows in the final five days of the month came from actively-managed equity funds; positive investor sentiment during the first three weeks of the month helped to offset this though, with net outflows of £348m over the course of the month. Coronavirus contagion concerns: Unknown territory Global equity funds were the hardest hit, having suffered the worst month on Calastone's record with net outflows of £309m. During the final five days of February alone, £881m flowed out of the sector, while Asian, European and specialist regional funds were also hard hit by virus fear...