Picture this: UK investors finally turned the equity-buying tap back on in April after 10 months of outflows — and almost none of the money touched UK stocks. £1.1bn flowed into equity funds per Calastone, but US-heavy funds gobbled it: +£1.1bn into US equities, +£1.3bn into US-heavy global. UK funds? Still selling. The buying’s back. The home bias is dead — and the £35bn Iran war fiscal hit is shadowing every domestic allocation call.
Where the £1.1bn actually went
The headline number tells one story; the regional breakdown tells the truth. US equities took +£1.1bn of inflows in April. US-heavy global equity funds took another +£1.3bn. Combined, roughly £2.4bn of UK savers’ fresh capital landed in US-exposed funds in a single month.
Every other region lost money. Asia Pacific posted the heaviest outflow at £383m, followed by emerging markets at £355m. UK equity funds dropped £342m. European equity funds shed £104m. Net of all those losses, total equity inflows still landed at £1.1bn — purely because US flows were big enough to drown out the sells everywhere else.
It is the best month for equity inflows since April 2025, and the best month for UK-focused funds since December 2024 — when flows were last damaged by the Autumn Budget. The buying is back. Just not the buying anyone in London was hoping for.
For platforms tracking retail flows, the concentration is unusual even by 2024-2025 US-bias standards. A single regional bucket pulling £2.4bn while every other regional bucket bleeds is the cleanest “risk-on, US-only” signature this cycle has produced.
What ended the 10-month sell-off
Edward Glyn, head of global markets at Calastone, tied the rotation directly to the Middle East war. He said: “The war in the Middle East has strangled energy and feedstock flows to large parts of the world, leaving US supplies largely intact, even if prices are higher.”
In other words: when global supply chains hit a wall, the only equity market that looked safely insulated was the one with domestic energy supply still largely working. Asia and Europe — the worst-affected regions — saw stock markets either flat or down in April. The US, with its narrow large-cap rally still intact, looked like the cleanest equity option on the menu.
What funded the rotation: investors withdrew £671m from money market funds in April after pumping £3.78bn into them during the 10-month equity sell-off between June 2025 and March 2026. Cash that had been parked safely went straight back into risk — but only into US risk.
The UK-equity blackhole
The £342m UK outflow is the headline UK savers should be reading. It is the BEST month for UK-focused funds since December 2024, but it is still an outflow — and the bar for “best” is an Autumn Budget shock that traders are still recovering from.
The structural read: UK savers don’t trust UK stocks even when valuations look cheap, even when the Bank of England is talking about cuts, and even when the FTSE 100 has held up better than most regional peers through the Iran cycle. Domestic allocators are voting with their feet, and those feet are walking into US ETFs.
Glyn flagged that the US rally itself was narrow — a small group of large-cap names doing most of the work. That should worry anyone leaning hard into the US trade right now. But UK savers are not pricing the narrowness; they are pricing the alternative.
The deeper concern is what this does to UK listing economics. If domestic flows stay negative even when UK valuations are at multi-year discounts to the US, the IPO pipeline that was supposed to revive London listings stays starved of buyers. Cheap stocks without buyers stay cheap — and eventually leave the market.
Property funds and the wider sentiment shift
UK property funds saw outflows of £21m in April — well below the recent monthly average and the third best month for property funds since June 2024. Both buy and sell orders rose, but buy orders surged 25% versus 2% on the sell side. The directional pull is clear.
Glyn’s read: “Higher income yields, following the repricing of assets through 2024 and 2025, may be beginning to attract capital back into the asset class. It is too early to call a full turnaround, not least because the economic calm from the Middle East crisis is likely to turn stormy soon.”
Translation: property may be early-stage stabilising, but a fresh Iran escalation rewinds the entire sentiment improvement. The same pattern lurks under every UK risk asset right now.
The Bottom Line
Watch the next monthly print: another US-only month tells you everything about how UK savers see their own market right now.
Don’t read April’s £1.1bn equity inflow as a vote of confidence. It’s a vote for US stocks, full stop — UK funds still bled £342m and the home bias is now structural. If Glyn is right that the Middle East calm turns stormy, expect another sharp rotation. Watch the next monthly print: another US-only month tells you everything about how UK savers see their own market right now.
Want more like this? Sign up to The MJBurrows Briefing — our free weekly newsletter delivered every Monday morning.
FAQ
Why did UK equity funds still lose money in April if the overall figures are positive?
The £1.1bn net equity inflow was driven entirely by US-focused funds; UK-focused funds posted £342m of outflows alongside European, Asia Pacific, and emerging market funds. The “best month since 2025” headline disguises a sharp regional concentration into US stocks specifically.
What did Calastone credit for the rotation back into equities?
Edward Glyn at Calastone tied the inflows to the Middle East war damaging Asia and Europe more than the US — a structural reason flows tilted toward US-heavy funds rather than spreading across regions. He also flagged that the US rally itself remains narrow, driven by a small group of large-cap names.
Are UK property funds finally turning around?
Outflows slowed sharply to £21m in April — well below the recent monthly average and the third best month for property funds since June 2024. Buy orders surged 25% versus 2% for sell orders, suggesting sentiment is stabilising even though Glyn cautioned it is too early to call a full turnaround.
Disclosure & Editorial Standards
MJBurrows is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The content on this website — including articles, calculators, and tools — is for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute personal financial, investment, tax, or legal advice and does not take into account your individual circumstances, financial situation, or objectives.
Nothing on this site is a personal recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or otherwise deal in any financial product, asset, or service. You should always conduct your own research and seek advice from a qualified, FCA-regulated financial adviser before making any financial decisions.
Our calculators produce estimates based on simplified models using HMRC-published rates for the current tax year. They cannot account for every individual circumstance and should not be relied upon as exact figures. Tax rules and rates may change — verify current rates with HMRC or a qualified tax adviser.
Projections are not guarantees. Where our tools show future values (investment growth, pension projections, compound interest), these are hypothetical illustrations based on assumed growth rates. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The value of investments can go down as well as up.
Market data displayed on this site is provided by third-party sources including Twelve Data, Yahoo Finance, and CoinGecko. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of third-party data.
This content is designed for UK residents and reflects UK tax rules, thresholds, and legislation. It may not apply to other jurisdictions.
Using this website does not create a professional-client relationship of any kind. MJBurrows is not responsible for any financial loss, damage, or decision made based on the content presented. By using this site, you accept these terms.
This disclaimer may be updated from time to time without prior notice. Last reviewed: 23 April 2026.
MJBurrows is an independent UK personal finance publication, written and edited by Matthew Burrows. There is no parent company, no investor group, and no advertising sales team — decisions about what to cover and how to frame it are made by Matthew alone. Our full Editorial Policy sets out how the site operates in detail.
Commercial model. As of April 2026, MJBurrows generates no revenue. The site carries no display advertising, no affiliate links, no sponsored content, no paid product placements, and no pay-for-coverage arrangements. If this changes in future, it will be disclosed openly on the Editorial Policy page.
Sources. Articles and tools reference primary sources — HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), gov.uk, the Bank of England, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Companies House, and UK government departmental publications (DWP, Treasury). Calculator data uses HMRC-published rates for the 2026/27 tax year. Market data (tickers, asset prices) is provided by Twelve Data, Yahoo Finance, and CoinGecko.
Verification. Every published article is fact-checked before going live. Numerical claims are traced to their primary source, quotes are checked against the original speaker or document, and calculator outputs are tested against HMRC worked examples. See our verification and accuracy policy for the full process.
Corrections. If you spot an error, please report it via the Corrections page. A three-tier severity system commits to specific response times:
- Tier 1 — Urgent (material reader harm, defamatory statements, regulatory or legal issues): acknowledged within 24 hours, page actioned within 24 hours, correction published within 48 hours of confirmation.
- Tier 2 — High (significant factual errors that misinform readers): acknowledged within 3 working days, correction published within 7 working days of confirmation.
- Tier 3 — Standard (minor factual errors, dated references, missing context): acknowledged within 7 working days, correction published at the next regular content review (within the quarter).
Significant corrections are logged on the public Corrections log.
Updates and review cadence. Calculators are reviewed at least quarterly, plus event-driven updates when HMRC publishes new rates (Budget, Autumn Statement, new tax year). Guides are reviewed at least twice a year, with major rewrites whenever underlying regulation changes. Tax-year-sensitive content is prioritised for review at the April tax-year transition.
Get in touch. For editorial enquiries — corrections, story tips, reader questions — the address is contact@mjburrows.com. The contact page is at mjburrows.com/contact. Every email is read personally by Matthew.
