Brewin Dolphin posted a 5.1% fall in first-half earnings on Wednesday as the coronavirus-related market sell-off towards the end of the period saw assets under management (AUM) fall by 3.6 billion pounds.

The British wealth manager said statutory pretax profit dropped to 28.2 million pounds for the six months ended March 31, while AUM stood at 41.4 billion pounds, a decrease from 45 billion pounds at its fiscal year-end.

A double whammy of concerns over an impending recession, triggered by the spread of the new coronavirus and a crash in oil prices has seen many investors flee from risky assets for most of 2020 thus far.

But the ructions have also fuelled demand for integrated wealth management services, Brewin said, pointing to total discretionary net flows of 500 million pounds in its first half, up 2.5% on an annualised basis.

"The recent market weakness has created a high level of uncertainty as to the outlook for the remainder of the financial year. It is too early to ascertain the consequential impact this may have on our full year 2020 income and profitability," Brewin Dolphin said.

Brewin estimated cost savings of 6 million pounds to 8 million pounds for the rest of the year, driven by "disciplined cost management".

Brewin Dolphin's British peers St James's Place, Ashmore, Jupiter Fund Management and Rathbone Brothers have so far posted steep decreases in their AUMs during the period, while U.S.-listed rival BlackRock's AUM plunged by nearly a trillion dollars.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru, editing by Sinead Cruise)