Short positions... UK equity exodus continues

■ “The trend of the London market remaining unloved since Brexit shows little sign of abating,” says Jeremy Gordon on Citywire. Investors have withdrawn a total of £8.1bn from UK equity funds in the first ten months of 2021, according to data from Morningstar. The latest figures follow outflows of £11.6bn in 2020 and £1.9bn in 2019. In total, UK equity funds have seen net outflows in five of the six years since the referendum on leaving in the EU in 2016. “The exodus… has continued despite valuations remaining lowly compared with other markets and signs of a robust economic recovery… two factors that fund managers had said might finally turn the tide.” Outflows from equityincome funds in particular look “to have become entrenched”, with £4.6bn withdrawn from the sector this year, as investors favour growth stocks listed overseas. “After a wave of dividend cuts… the UK equity-income sector has now seen cash exiting for 17 months on the trot.”

■ You cannot guarantee higher returns in investing, but you can make your costs lower, says Ali Hussain in The Times. “A price war hotting up between investment platforms will help.” AJ Bell, which is Britain’s third-largest platform, is launching a new app-based service called Dodl next year. This will have an annual fee of 0.15% and no trading charges, undercutting the firm’s own Youinvest service and matching Vanguard, the low-cost investing pioneer. Other app-based services such as Freetrade also bring big savings. The main downside of these services is “limited options”: Dodl will initially have just 50 major UK shares and 30 tracker funds. Freetrade covers the UK and US markets, but platforms such as Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Investor and Youinvest offer much more.