By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) - Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown (L:HRGV) shrugged off market jitters to post a 3 percent rise in assets in its first quarter, bolstered by a jump in new clients and market gains.
Retail mutual funds have suffered outflows in recent weeks as rising global political and trade tensions crimped investor sentiment, with asset manager Jupiter Fund Management (L:JUP) among those to post net outflows.
Despite that, Hargreaves, which offers a range of funds and other financial services through its online platform, said assets rose to 94.1 billion pounds buoyed by 1.3 billion pounds in net new business and positive market moves, which added a further 1.2 billion pounds.
"The past quarter has seen an uncertain market environment and weak investor sentiment resulting in an industry-wide slowdown in net retail flows. Despite this backdrop, we believe the strength of our business model positions us well for when sentiment improves," Chief Executive Chris Hill said.
The FTSE 100 (FTSE) fell 1.7 percent during the quarter.
Hargreaves said it had added 29,000 new clients to its platform during the period, with a number choosing to consolidate most of the their wealth on the platform, underpinning a 16 percent revenue jump to 120.8 million pounds.