Standard Life Investments says investors committed GBP1.46bn gross (GBP713m net) into its range of mutual funds during the first six months of 2010.

In total, this represents an average of GBP11.3m gross (GBP5.5m net) invested for every working day between 1 January and 30 June 2010.

It also represents a 96 per cent increase in the gross funds of GBP744m invested during the same period last year and a 128 per cent increase on net sales of GBP312.6m.

The five top selling funds (gross) over the first six months of 2010 were the Global Absolute Return Strategies, Global Index Linked Bond, UK Smaller Companies, UK Equity High Income and Select Property funds.

The five top selling funds for the same period last year (gross) were the UK Equity High Income, Global Absolute Return Strategies, AAA Income, Global Index Linked and Corporate Bond funds.

Jacqueline Kerr, head of UK wholesale, Standard Life Investments, says: “Investors are increasingly recognising the benefits of investing in our range of mutual funds. Interestingly our Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund has been the main contributor to improving sales during the first six months of 2010 with sales of GBP616m (GBP571m net), accounting for 42 per cent of our total gross sales. This boosted our market share of gross sales in the absolute return sector as a whole from 8.5 per cent in 2009 to 25.5 per cent in 2010. The fund has produced a competitive absolute return of 8.74 per cent per annum over the last three years with a volatility level of 7.3 per cent.

“In addition to this and as at the week commencing 19 July, the total gross sales from the UK retail market into Global Absolute Return Strategies since its launch in May 2008 went through the GBP1bn barrier a success I believe is in no small part due to our delivering training days to over 600 intermediaries during the first half of the year – and we thank them for their continued support.”