U.S.-equity mutual funds enjoyed their highest monthly inflow since January, gathering $10.5 billion in October 2013. International-equity funds did even better—leading all category groups with inflows of $12.2 billion, according to Morningstar, Inc.
Total mutual fund inflows, at $17.8 billion for the month, were tempered by continued outflows from taxable- and municipal-bond funds tempered overall inflows. Morningstar estimates net flow by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund.
Vanguard gathered just over $6 billion in the quarter ($60 billion YTD) to lead all fund companies. American Funds, PIMCO, Columbia and Janus all saw outflows of more than $10 billion each.
Highlights from Morningstar’s report on mutual fund flows:
- Active U.S.-equity funds had strong monthly inflows for only the third time in 2013, failing to fulfill expectations of a “great rotation” into active strategies after years of passive-fund flow dominance.
- But outflows from active equity funds are only $15.3 billion for the year to date, compared with outflows of $131.5 billion in 2012.
- Foreign large blend was the top category for inflows; equity categories took the top three spots in terms of inflow by category.
- October was the first month since March that bank loan, nontraditional bond, or world bond did not lead all categories in flows, and the first time in more than a year that the bank-loan category wasn’t in the top five.
- Inflation-protected bond funds lost $4.8 billion in October. The average fund in the category has lost 5.9% year to date.
- Vanguard dominated inflows at the provider level in October, collecting new $6 billion overall and inflows of $2.1 billion for Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund.
- Vanguard’s market share of mutual fund assets stands at 17.5%, up from 15.6% three years ago. American Funds’ market share has fallen to 10% from 12% over the same period. PIMCO’s share has dropped to 5.1 percent after peaking at 6.1 percent in late 2012.
Click here for more information about Morningstar Asset Flows.
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