US Mutual Fund Assets Grow by 1.5% in February

March 30, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Total assets in American mutual funds rose by 1.5% in February, according to a monthly report from the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

Total mutual fund assets now stand at $8.125 trillion after the $123.7 billion inflow in the second month of the year. In January, this figure topped $8 trillion for the first time.

Breaking down the total figure, long-term funds had collective inflows of $29.09 billion in February, nearly $10 billion more than in January. Stock funds rose 3% – or $22.43 billion – on the month, with world equity funds posting $11.95 billion inflows (nearly $4 billion more than in the previous month). US stock funds had inflows of $10.49 billion, up from the January figure of $1.89 billion.

Hybrid funds – which invest in both stocks and bonds – had inflows of $4.34 billion, slightly lower than the $5.29 billion inflow seen in January.

Bond fund inflows were also smaller in February than in the previous month; the latter saw $2.32 billion in capital come into the market, while the former saw $4.63 billion. Taxable bond funds brought in $1.58 billion on the month, down from $3.76 billion a month before. Municipal bond funds had net inflows of $741 million, down slightly from $870 million in January.

Money market funds saw an outflow on the month of $20.06 billion, slightly less than the outflow of $27.52 billion in the previous month.

Funds offered primarily to institutions saw outflows of almost $13 billion on the month, while funds targeting individuals saw outflows of $7.16 billion.

«