Purchases of investment trusts by advisers and wealth managers on platforms have reached a record high of £120.9m, the Association of Investment Companies has reported.

The Q2 2014 figures compared with £93.7m in the same period last year. The report, commissioned by the Association of Investment Companies, using Matrix Solutions' Financial Clarity, showed purchases of investment companies in the twelve months to June 2014 reached £422.9m, a 48% increase on the twelve months ended June 2013 (£285.9m), and up 112% on the twelve months ended June 2012 (£199.3m).
Sales of investment companies decreased slightly in Q2, to £72.1m from a high of £77.3m in the previous quarter.
Ian Sayers, director general of the Association of Investment Companies, said: "It's very encouraging to see that annual adviser purchases of investment companies through adviser platforms have more than doubled since RDR was implemented."

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Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Investment trusts are flavour of the day with a swelling group of DIY investors, indeed over the last 5 years we have seen a doubling in the proportion of investors holding an investment trust on our Vantage platform.
"Some of this is down to the increase in online information available to DIY investors, some of it down to the attention drawn to the sector by the involvement of high profile managers like Neil Woodford and Richard Buxton.
"Advisory platforms appear to be attracting high levels of investment trust purchases too, but we are sceptical about the "RDR effect" prompting advisers to put client money directly into investment trusts.
"Instead, we strongly suspect that wealth managers are investing within discretionary portfolios on behalf of advisers. Nonetheless the effect is the same- more advisory clients are now holding these assets."

Other findings from the report were:

• The Global and UK Equity Income sectors were again the most popular for advisers and wealth managers, accounting for 18% and 16% of the total purchases of investment companies in Q2 respectively. The next most popular sectors in Q2 were Infrastructure, Property Direct – UK and Global Emerging Markets.
• Transact and Ascentric continued to be the top platforms for investment company purchases, with market shares of 46% and 22% respectively in the first half of 2014. Alliance Trust Savings is third with 17% of the market share.
• Total purchases through platforms in Q2 2014 were at a record £23.4bn, a 6% increase on Q1 2014 (£22.1bn).