FRC: Funds Absorb $27 Billion in New Assets In June

Once again it was domestic equities that lead net inflows among fund types, netting $20.5 billion, while corporate bond funds held onto a distant second place after taking in $6.1 billion.   June’s other inflow was recorded in international/global bond funds, gaining $1.5 billion new assets, according to a Financial Research Corporate (FRC) report.

However, unlike May that saw all fund types in the left-hand side of the flow ledger (See  May Saw $20.4 Billion in Fund Inflow ), June saw money pulled out of government and tax-free bond funds, with outflows of $611 million and $5 million, respectively.   For the year though, all fund objectives have managed to keep the red pens in the desk drawer, recording an aggregate net flow of $112.1 billion dollars, as 2003 has yet to see a month of fund net outflows.

Per Morningstar fund category, it was moderate allocation that was king of the June hill, accumulating $3.1 billion in the month.   This was closely pursued by high yield bond funds, gaining $3 billion in terms of net flows.   The rest of the top five was living large cap, literally, composed of:

• Large Value – $2.8 billion
• Large Growth – $2.5 billion
• Large Blend – $2.2 billion

Family Affair

Bucking a two-month trend of identical lists, the top fund groups were altered a bit.   Unchanged were the Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments once again coming up head of the class in terms of total assets, with $535 billion and $470 billion, respectively.  Behind the two sizeable fund families in the total asset race were:

• American Funds – $384 billion
• Franklin Distributors Inc – $164 billion
• PIMCO Funds – $134 billion.

June’s best-sellers list was also shuffled from the previous month, even though American Funds once again held the month’s top spot, recording net flows of $5.5 billion, followed by a photo finish for place and show between Fidelity’s $3.74 billion and Vanguard’s $3.64 billion.   Rounding out the top five in monthly net inflows were PIMCO ($2 billion) and Dodge & Cox Funds ($1.2 billion).

Year-to-date, the top five list showed American Funds on top with $24.7 billion in net flow, followed by:

• Vanguard – $18.1 billion
• PIMCO – $15 billion
• Fidelity – $11.6 billion
• Dodge & Cox – $5.8 billion

Individual Excellence

American Funds dominated the top selling individual funds for the month.   Holding spots one through four in June’s net flows were:

• American Funds Growth Fund – $1.2 billion
• American Funds Cap Inc Bldr – $1 billion
• American Inc Fund – $916 million
• American Funds Balanced Fund – $684 million

It was not until the fifth spot, that another fund family was invited to the ball – $676 million taken in by Dodge & Cox’s Stock Fund.