Funds under management in both the wholesale and retail markets fell sharply in the March quarter, as the virus pandemic soured investor mood, according to data from actuaries and researchers Plan for Life.

Overall wholesale funds declined 9.6% or $118.6 billion to $1.12 trillion from the December quarter, while total retail funds tanked 12.4% to $856.8 billion.

“Global investment markets dropped sharply with the fall initiated by the extraordinary quarantine measures enforced to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Plan for Life said.

“They have since partially bounced back but are starting to go backwards once more as economies worldwide remain in trouble with this volatile and uncertain situation expected to continue as in many countries the virus spread remains out of control.”

In the wholesale market, institutional funds declined 8.8% to $682.32 billion from the December quarter, investment funds slipped 10.8% to $406.88 billion and superannuation and pension funds fell by a similar margin to $28.8 billion.

For the retail market, leading manager BT Financial suffered a 14.8% drop in funds under management to $147.2 billion while second-ranked AMP recorded an 11.4% decline to $135.8 billion.

Commonwealth/Colonial and National Australia Bank/MLC, ranked third and fourth respectively, were also affected by the market turmoil, posting falls of 12.4% to $128 billion and 13.9% to $104.6 billion.