Clicks for ESG research drop as advisers hunt for capital accumulation opportunities

investmentweek.co.uk:

The consulting and research house saw a significant drop in users exploring ESG funds via its Fund Dashboard.

The consulting and research house saw a significant drop in users exploring ESG funds via its Fund Dashboard — an interface through which advisers can access information across core fund selection criteria — from 30% in Q1 to 16.3% the following quarter.

The firm said this may reflect a broader cooling in investor appetite for funds with a responsible investment mandate.

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Meanwhile, interest has been steadily growing for funds seeking to deliver capital accumulation, accounting for over half of all searches within Square Mile's Academy of Funds.

Those searching for income strategies remained broadly static at 35.8%, while interest in capital preservation and inflation protection continued to fall, from 12.5% to 9.4% and 7.5% to 3.8%, respectively.  

Scott Dakers, business development director at Square Mile, said: «Inflation continues to be a dominant topic in our conversations with fund managers, so it is interesting that advisers are increasingly researching strategies that have the potential of delivering capital accumulation, while inflation protection, at 3.8% of searches, barely registered last quarter.  

»This could be a result of the performance of equity markets which has been broadly positive year to date, and a desire to benefit from the returns of our rated funds that promise capital growth over the longer term."

Equities dominated again as the most viewed asset class in in the second quarter at 52.7%, compared to 26.3% for fixed income in second place. 

However, searches for the IA Sterling Strategic Bond and IA UK All