Investing February 27, 2001

Mutual Fund Flows Reverse Course In January

February 27, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The nation's mutual fund assets rose 3.8% in January, led by strong increases in stock and taxable money market funds, according to the Investment Company Institute.
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Total mutual fund assets totaled $7.234 trillion at month end.  Assets in stock funds surged by $129.70 billion, while net new cash flows of $24.58 billion were more than twice December’s tepid pace.

Money market mutual funds also increased by $109.9 billion, largely (80%) from institutional funds, with $82.47 billion in net new cash flows to the category.

Stocking Up

Among stock funds net new cash flow totaled:

  • $7.65 billion to aggressive growth funds, up from $2.53 billion in December
  • $8.27 billion to growth funds, up from December’s $6.17 billion
  • $1.56 billion to sector funds, double the $776 million in December
  • $3.51 billion to growth and income funds, nearly 5 times last month’s inflow
  • $3.79 billion to international funds, far more than the $268 million in December

Hybrid funds enjoyed a turnaround, attracting $1.19 billion of new net cash flow, compared with December’s $1.62 billion outflow.

Taxable bond funds drew $7.57 billion in January, compared with an outflow of $955 million in December, while municipal bond funds had an inflow of $1.03 billion, in contrast to December’s $275 million inflow.

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