LONDON (Reuters) -British investors have pulled a record 7.4 billion pounds ($9.9 billion) from equity funds since June, marking the longest period of consecutive monthly net selling since the Brexit vote in 2016, data from funds network Calastone shows.
The move has been driven by nerves over whether high global stock prices are sustainable and concerns about potential changes to the tax treatment of investments in this month’s UK budget, said Edward Glyn, head of global markets at Calastone.
It also reflects a global trend.
Bank of America said last week that its private clients had sold $12 billion worth of stocks over the past eight weeks, the fastest pace of outflows it had seen for a year.
British investors dumped a record 3.6 billion pounds of stocks in October alone, with some seeking lower-risk assets, leading to a record 955 million pounds of net inflows into money market funds and 589 million pounds invested in fixed income.
All categories of equities saw net selling, including global, North American, technology and British funds, said Calastone, which has been compiling the data since 2015.
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Additional reporting by Naomi Rovnick, Editing by Alexander Smith)
