Worldwide investment fund assets increased by 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 to €44.3 trillion, according to The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).
EFAMA reported the result in its International Statistical Release, published on 27 March.
Elsewhere, Q4 last year witnessed worldwide net cash inflows total €635 billion, down from €694 billion in Q3.
Long-term funds (all funds excluding money market funds) recorded net sales of €523 billion, up from €430 billion in Q3.
Net sales of equity funds jumped to €245 billion, from €121 billion the previous quarter.
Net sales of balanced/mixed funds increased to €112 billion, from €65 billion in Q3, while money market funds registered net sales of €112 billion, down from €264 billion in Q3.
At the end of 2017, the asset share of equity funds represented 42 percent and the asset share of bond funds was 21 percent.
Balanced and mixed funds represented 18 percent of the worldwide total, whereas the asset share of money market funds was 11 percent.
The market share of the ten largest countries or regions in the world market were the US at 45.9 percent, Europe at 34.2 percent, Australia at 4 percent, Brazil at 3.6 percent, Japan at 3.3 percent, Canada at 3.2 percent, China 3.2 percent, Korea at 0.9 percent, India at 0.6 percent and South Africa at 0.4 percent.
Five European countries, which ranked among the top ten largest fund domiciles, included Luxembourg at 9.4 percent, Ireland at 5.4 percent, Germany at 4.6 percent, France at 4.4 percent and the UK at 3.7 percent.
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