For the second straight week, and after six consecutive weeks of outflows, municipal bond mutual funds actually stayed positive.
The week ending Sept. 14 saw $470 million of inflows from muni bond funds that report their flows weekly, according to Lipper FMI.
Flows are down slightly from those of the previous week. In the week ended Sept. 7, there were net inflows of $565 million for muni bond funds that report their flows weekly, Lipper reported.
A large uptick in new issuance may be behind the shift. The volume has brought with it price discovery and given the muni market a generally stronger tone, traders said. Investors might have sensed this and decided muni funds were a sound choice.
The industry can well recall how money flowed heavily from muni bond funds between mid-November and early June, often by more than $1 billion a week. In the week of Jan. 19, investors in weekly reporting funds pulled more than $4 billion.
Assets for funds that report their flows weekly rose this week to $334.5 billion from $331.8 billion the previous week.
The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds increased by $175 million. The week before, they reported an increase of $1.96 billion.
The four-week moving average for all weekly reporting municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly saw a $151 million inflow, up considerably from a $47 million outflow the week before.
High-yield muni funds have also seen their second consecutive week of inflows after six straight weeks of outflows.
Funds that report weekly saw inflows of $104 million, Lipper reported. The previous week, high-yield funds reported inflows of $136 million.
Assets for high-yield funds that report their flows weekly ended at $41.60 billion, up from $40.80 billion the previous week. The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds rose by just $16.9 million. Last week, they rose by $262 million.
The four-week moving average for all high-yield muni bond funds that report their flows weekly was a $24 million inflow, up from a $47 million outflow the week before.
