Assets in the nation's mutual funds declined $252.8 billion in July to $6.4 trillion, the Investment Company Institute reported. Stock funds had a record outflow of $52.6 billion. While the equity fund outflow set a record, however, it represented only 1.7% of equity fund assets, compared with the October 1987 outflow of 3.7%, the ICI said.
Bond funds, on the other hand, had a record inflow of $28.1 billion, while money market funds took in $54.6 billion.
Lipper reported a similar outflow figure for equity funds, estimating that $49 billion left these funds in July [see MFMN 9/2/02].
The ICI's bond and money market fund figures differed substantially, however, from Lipper's lower inflow figures of $19.2 billion for bond and $31 billion for money market funds. In addition, Lipper reported that a net inflow of $1.2 billion went into all types of mutual funds in the month of July.
