Mutual Fund Flows Retreat in September

Once again the Financial Research Corporation (FRC) reports that International/Global funds led with $11.2 billion in inflows for the month, following the $11 billion reported for August (See  International/Global Funds Return for Repeat August Performance ).   Corporate fixed income funds reported inflows of $1.8 billion in September, while all other asset categories experienced net outflows for the month.   Money market funds experienced a hefty decline of some $14 billion.

By Morningstar category, Intermediate Term Bond and Moderate Allocation funds both had estimated inflows of around $3.7 billion.   Specialty-Natural Resources came in third with $2.9 billion in inflows.   World Stock and World Allocation reported inflows of $2.2 and $2.1 billion respectively.

American Funds far outsold other fund groups again for the month of September with $7.5 billion in inflows.   Vanguard Group ($3.5 billion), Fidelity Distributors ($3.1 billion), Barclays Global Investors Funds and PIMCO Funds ($2.4 billion each) rounded out the top five.

American Funds also had the top three selling portfolios for the month.   Its Growth Fund of America and Capital Income Builder had inflows of $1.5 billion each, while the Cap World Growth & Income funds sold a net of $1.3 billion for the month.   The PIMCO Total Return Fund ($1.2 billion) and Fidelity Low-Priced Stock Fund ($1 billion) were the fourth and fifth best selling portfolios.