Municipal bond mutual fund flows are on somewhat of a hot streak. They’ve seen net inflows for three out of the past four weeks, after the previous period saw 29 weeks of outflows.
In the week ended June 29, there were net inflows of $163 million for muni bond funds that report their flows weekly, according to Lipper FMI. Investors the previous week deposited $137 million into muni funds.
Before the recent turnaround, money had been leaving muni bond funds, often at rates of more than $1 billion a week, from mid-November to earlier this month. Investors in weekly reporting funds yanked more than $4 billion in the week of Jan. 19, Lipper reported.
Assets for funds that report their flows weekly dipped slightly this week to $318.5 billion from $318.8 billion the previous week. But the value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds dropped $470 million. The previous week, they reported a jump of $1.2 billion.
The four-week moving average for all municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly saw a healthy $101 million inflow compared to a $49 million outflow the week before, the first positive number in at least 11 weeks.
High-yield muni funds continued their positive streak. Funds that report weekly saw a slightly slower inflow of $92 million, Lipper reported. The previous week, high-yield funds reported inflows of $101 million. High-yield bond funds have reported inflows seven out of the past eight weeks, Lipper numbers show.
In addition, assets for high-yield funds that report their flows weekly increased to $39.68 billion from $39.59 billion the previous week. The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds dropped the first time in 12 weeks by $4 million. Last week, they jumped by $257 million.
The four-week moving average for all high-yield muni bond funds that report their flows weekly rose to a $78 million inflow from a $44.1 million inflow the week before.
