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Kate Kachor is a journalist with InvestorDaily, a Morningstar publication.

Perpetual (PPT) has announced a drop in its funds under management (FUM), citing difficult market conditions as the core contributor to the result.

Perpetual informed the market yesterday that its FUM stood at $22.6 billion as at 30 June, compared to $23.7 billion at 31 March 2012.

During that period, the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index declined by 5.0 per cent, while the S&P/ASX 300 Industrials Accumulation Index dropped by 0.6 per cent.

"Total average FUM for the six months to 30 June 2012 were $23.4 billion," the company said.

The $1.1 billion decrease in FUM was attributable to a number of reasons, it said.

In a further breakdown of this figure, Perpetual said a decrease of around $800 million comprised about $550 million of market-related declines and the payment of around $250 million of distributions at the end of June.

The company said the addition of a further $300 million of net outflows, including $400 million of net outflows from the equities asset class and $100 million of net inflows into cash and fixed interest from the company's institutional channel, also contributed to the decrease.

Of the $400 million of equity outflows, around $300 million of net outflows were from the intermediated channel, predominately from the Industrial Share Fund.

"The challenging market environment continues to be the dominant factor affecting fund flows," a Perpetual spokesperson told InvestorDaily.