Heavy flows into offshore equity funds

More than R1 billion was invested in offshore equities in retail funds in the September quarter according to the latest collective investment statistics.

'We saw large flows into South African retail funds during the same period and a similar pattern has now emerged offshore. Investors are lowering their market and country risk by diversifying their portfolios offshore and currently have a selection of 372 offshore funds.' said Di Turpin, chief executive of the Association of Collective Investments.

There was an outflow of R592m from the retail fixed interest funds suggesting investors had switched some of their cash holdings into equities. in chief executive of the Association of Collective Investments. But while retail funds showed an appetite for equities, there was an outflow of R1,4 billion in institutional equity funds.

Total assets of the foreign currency denominated funds topped the R62,5 billion mark bringing combined collective investments industry assets to more than R453 billion.