Long-term savings market recuperates after high retail sales |
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Tue, 05 Apr 2005 01:00
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Net retail sales have sprung back to life once again after hitting a record level in the past 10 months and have in turn brought the long-term savings market on the path of recovery.
With about £541.7m being put into unit trusts by private investors as well as into free investment companies in the month of February, this has become the highest amount of investment ever since last April which saw £812.2m of cash flow into the market. In fact, according to the Investment Management Association (IMA), February statistics showed nearly an eight-fold improvement over the low figure of £67.8m observed in August.
| Furthermore, the increase in the net retail sales in February 2004 to £759m also saw net ISA sales increase almost two-fold than the last month with total net ISA sales in February being £85.6m, about 120.1% more than January. Investors were seen investing money rapidly into their ISAs or individual savings accounts as the financial year was drawing to an end.
According to deputy chief executive of the IMA, Sheila Nicoll, “the end of the ‘ISA season’ and an improvement in the markets may be encouraging investors."
However, data also hinted at the investors’ reluctance towards ISAs which followed the slash of tax benefits by Chancellor Gordon Brown, as well as the worst recession that had set in after the Great Depression. Therefore, the net sales figure in February was 59.14 per cent when compared to last year with total retail ISA sales falling by 3.6 per cent to reach £417 billion.
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