Worldwide mutual fund assets increased 0.3% to $23.02 trillion at the end of 1Q10, according to the
Net outflows from money market funds nearly doubled, jumping to $406 billion of money withdrawn, from $206 billion in the first quarter. Over the past four quarters, net redemptions from money market funds have averaged $277 billion per quarter.
The figure nearly tripled in the Americas, jumping to $340 billion worth of outflows in the first quarter from $124 billion in 4Q09.
While the appreciation of the dollar reduced the growth rate of U.S. dollar-denominated assets, equity fund assets rose 3% to $9.2 trillion during the quarter and currently constitute the largest asset type, comprising 40% of mutual fund assets worldwide. Meanwhile, bond fund assets grew 4.2% and balanced/mixed funds assets rose 1.4% in the first quarter while money market fund assets fell 9.0% to $4.8 trillion.
By region, 55% of mutual fund assets were in the Americas, 32% in Europe, and 12% in Africa and the Asia and Pacific region.
The ICI reported a total of 65,971 mutual funds worldwide, made up of 39% equity, 23% balanced/mixed, 19% bond, 14% unclassified, and 5% money market.
Flows into equity funds in the Americas and the Asia and Pacific region rose, with reported inflows of $32 billion and $14 billion in the first quarter, respectively, compared to $21 billion and $9 billion during 4Q09. Flows into equity funds in Europe showed a slight drop to $27 billion during 1Q10, down from $32 billion in the previous quarter.
U.S. Equity Funds Bleed $3.85B
According to additional, weekly U.S. sales figures released by the ICI this afternoon, aggregate estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds were $3.34 billion for the week ending July 28. Equity funds showed estimated outflows of $3.85 billion, a jump from $1.32 billion during the previous week.
Domestic equity funds had outflows of $4.10 billion, while estimated inflows to foreign equity funds were $255 million. Meanwhile, hybrid funds had estimated inflows of $69 million, down from $370 million in the previous week.
Additionally, bond funds had estimated inflows of $7.12 billion, compared to $7.93 billion during the week prior. Taxable bond funds saw estimated inflows of $6.13 billion and municipal bond funds had estimated inflows of $987 million, ICI data indicated.
