Active fund managers took a hammering in January, as Covid-shy investors turned their backs on stock pickers which only a month previously they had helped to notch up near record inflows.

According to data from Calastone, which tracks money entering and leaving funds in the UK from financial advisers, fund supermarkets and wealth managers, the onset of the UK’s second national lockdown at the start of January prompted investors to pull £965m from traditional active equity funds during the month — almost reversing the £1bn added in December.