The Markets March 4, 2007

Mutual Fund Assets Increase $153.8B in January

Combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $152.8 billion, or 1.5%, to $10.56 trillion in January, according to the Investment Company Institute's (ICI) survey of the mutual fund industry.

Reported by

Adrien Martin

The increase is just slightly higher than the $132.8 billion increase in December.

Long-term funds – stock, bond, and hybrid funds – had a net inflow of $46.89 billion in January, compared to an inflow of $20.4 billion in December, ICI data showed.

Stock funds posted an inflow of $28.35 billion in January, versus $10.8 billion in December. U.S. funds that invest primarily overseas posted an inflow of $21.11 billion for the month, while funds that invest primarily in the U.S. had an inflow of $7.23 billion in January, versus an outflow of $3.42 billion in December.

Bond funds had an inflow of $15.17 billion; taxable bond funds, an inflow of $12.35 billion; and municipal bond funds, an inflow of $2.82 billion for the month.

Hybrid funds saw an inflow of $3.37 billion in January, compared to an inflow of $1.76 billion in December.

Money market funds had an ouflow of $7.88 billion in January, compared with an inflow of $41.45 billion reported in December. Funds offered primarily to institutions experienced an outflow of $24.20 billion, while funds offered primarily to individuals posted an inflow of $16.32 billion.