ICI: December Fund Gain 3rd in a Row

January 29, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The nation's mutual funds made it three months in a row of asset increases, as combined assets were up by $178.9 billion (2.5%) in December, following November's $82.4 billion (1.2%) hike.

Mutual funds saw their combined assets increase in December to $7.41 trillion from a revised $7.23 trillion in the previous month (See  ICI: Mutual Fund Assets Higher in November on improvement from stock and hybrid funds.

Stock funds gathered $149 billion in net new assets for the month, an increase of 4.8%, followed by the $20-billion pickup for hybrid funds, gaining 4.9% for the month, according to data from the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

Taxable money market funds were down 0.9% for the month while tax-free money market funds, suffered a 1.3% giveback.  Additionally, increases in net new assets were recorded among municipal bond funds (0.1%) and taxable bond funds – higher by 0.9%.

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