Morningstar Direct has released new data revealing that investors withdrew £2.4 billion from funds across the UK in July, bringing total outflows for the past year to £35.1 billion.

The hefty outflows are a consequence of previously attractive sectors suffering significant withdrawals of funds, as uncertainty over Brexit and fresh concerns of a future recession have been influencing investor behaviour in the UK, with more cautious strategies resulting in investors fleeing from riskier ventures to supposed safe havens.

Equity funds particularly suffered last month, with £1.3 billion being pulled from the sector. Meanwhile, alternative ad property funds also experienced significant withdrawals in July of £918 million and £417 million respectively. In the absolute return sector, £301 million was pulled from the ASI Global Return Strategies fund, possibly due to concerns over the capability of such funds to beat their targets in the current investment climate.

Instead, the data suggests that investors are shifting towards fixed income, which has enjoyed inflows of £428 million, and money market funds which saw £78 million pour in to the sector.

The report also showed that the highly-rated Jupiter European fund suffered from £298 million withdrawals from investors. This is likely a consequence of fund manager Alexander Darwall departing from the group to create his own boutique firm. However, other funds sitting at the bottom of Morningstar Direct's tables with high withdrawal totals include Invesco Global Targeted Returns UK, Scottish Widows international Bond, and the Federated Short-Term Sterling Prime Fund. This suggests the wider trends characterised by investor apprehensiveness are now firmly established in Morningstar Direct's data.