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Mutual Fund Asset Flows For June “Worst Month” On Record - Morningstar

Natasha Taghavi

16 July 2013

US mutual fund asset flows for June 2013 saw investors withdraw $43.8 billion from taxable bond funds and $16.4 billion from municipal bond funds, making June the "worst month" on record for bond funds in terms of total outflows, according to data.

Long-term funds overall shed $47.3 billion, the largest monthly outflow since $105.6 billion in October 2008, while intermediate-term bond funds lost $24.4 billion in June, dragged down by outflows of $9.6 billion from PIMCO total return, the firm said.

However, not all fixed-income categories suffered in June and the year-to-date period. Bank loan funds collected more assets than any other category in 2013, and non-traditional bond came in third. International-equity and alternative funds had net inflows in June. Among international equity funds, Morningstar said that the Oakmark International Fund continued its string of strong inflows, collecting $753 million. The fund has doubled in size in the last year, absorbing nearly $5 billion and achieving a 35 per cent return year to date.

At the firm level, Morningstar revealed that PIMCO led outflows, with redemptions of $14.5 billion, followed by Fidelity with $5.1 billion. Vanguard saw its first firm-level outflows (including exchanged-traded and money market funds) in nearly 20 years. MFS topped all providers with inflows of $1.4 billion.

Morningstar has approximately $157 billion in assets under advisement and management, as at 31 March 2012.