Cash withdrawals from municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly grew to $640.37 million for the week ended March 23 — the second consecutive week that outflows have increased after falling back sharply earlier in the month, according to Lipper FMI.
This week’s outflow was bigger than the $568.71 million and the $528.34 million that exited the $466.11 billion muni mutual fund industry in the weeks ended March 16 and March 9, respectively.
The weekly reporters hemorrhaged a much more hefty $1.03 billion in the week ended March 2.
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of withdrawals for all municipal bond funds increased slightly to $974.05 million, up from $966.56 million in the week ended March 16.
The municipal market weakened by 11 basis points during the week, according to the 10-year yield on the Municipal Market Data scale. As a result, the value of assets held by the funds that report their numbers weekly dropped by $394.450 million.
