British institutions invested in the first quarter less than half as much as they did in the fourth quarter of 2004 even as they ramped up holdings of UK government bonds, official data showed on Wednesday. The Office for National Statistics said that total net investment by institutions fell by more than half to 9.9 billion pounds in the January-March period from a downwardly-revised 22.3 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, Reuters said. Institutions invested less in British company securities, just 1.1 billion pounds compared with 5.4 billion pounds of net investment in the fourth quarter of 2004. Investment in short-term assets and overseas securities was also down. But institutions ramped up net gilt investment to 3.8 billion pounds from 800 million, with the biggest increases of 1.0 billion pounds and 1.5 billion pounds coming from general insurance funds and self-administered pension funds. Demand for long-dated government bonds in the UK has been particularly strong in recent years as insurance and pension funds have sought to match their long-term liabilities with safe, liquid assets. --More 2355 Local Time 2055 GMT
