The stock market was the best performing asset of 2025, appreciating by 34%, and equity managers did not disappoint, delivering results. However, they failed to attract investors. As a result, they experienced their worst historical net inflow, a negative R$ 54.5 billion for the year, with net redemptions in every quarter.
The data comes from Anbima (Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities), which also shows that equity funds had an average return of 31.6% for the year, well above the CDI (Interbank Deposit Certificate) rate for the period, which was 14.3%.
Sector-specific funds showed the best profitability, with a return of 69.3%, and actively indexed equity funds, 35.7%. The worst return was from small-cap funds, with 19.9%.
Despite the exit of investors and the drop in the number of funds (-726), the net worth of equity funds grew, increasing from R$ 578.1 billion to R$ 660.1 billion in 2025. This shows that the growth in the stock was due to the appreciation of the portfolios.
“This result reminds investors of the importance of diversification, and that variable income has great potential for appreciation. But the truth is that there is still a lot of risk aversion, and investors are content with the still attractive and safer returns of fixed income,” says Pedro Rudge, director of Anbima, at a press conference.
According to fundraising data from asset managers up to November, the managers with the most redemptions in equity funds were Credit Suisse, BB Asset, Itaú, Lanx Capital, and Safra.
Industry result
The investment fund industry closed the year 2025 with net assets of R$ 10.7 trillion, an annual growth of 15.2%, according to data from Anbima. However, it had net inflows R$ 35 billion lower than the previous year's R$ 88.4 billion.
Fixed income continued to be the driving force of the market, bringing in R$ 84.3 billion in net inflows, with an average return of 12.3% for the year, below the CDI rate for the period, which was 14.3%.
Within this category, funds with free duration and free credit (which can allocate more than 20% of their portfolio to medium and high-risk credit securities, both in the domestic and international markets) stood out, with positive net inflows of R$ 148.4 billion, while short-duration and investment-grade funds had negative inflows of R$ 79.2 billion.
FIDCs and FIPs also experienced strong growth, with net inflows of R$ 57.6 billion and R$ 60.1 billion, respectively.
Recovery in sight
Multi-market funds experienced even worse net inflows than equity funds, with a negative balance of R$ 58.9 billion. However, this was significantly better than in recent years, where the net inflow was only negative by R$ 151.3 billion in 2024.
And the numbers show a reversal trend, since in the second half of the year there was a positive inflow of R$ 7.7 billion.
The average return for the asset class was 14.7% for the year, slightly above the CDI (Brazilian interbank deposit rate). However, long and short multi-market funds had an average return of 22%, and capital-protected funds had an average return of 19.1% during the same period.
ETFs also managed to attract more investors, with net inflows of R$ 22.9 billion — the largest since the beginning of Anbima's historical series in 2002.
Despite the improved performance of riskier assets, fixed income is expected to remain the dominant force in 2026.
"Interest rates will fall, but the speed and macroeconomic context are still unknown, and even so, they should remain high. This provides comfort to investors who are risk-averse in an election year and given the current macroeconomic conditions. With better expectations, this could change over time. For now, the stock market depends on foreign capital inflows," says Rudge.
