NEW YORK - Outflows from municipal bond mutual funds that report weekly were the lowest so far this year, declining by nearly half to $528.33 million the week ended March 9, according to data from Lipper FMI.
The outflows from the $466.14 billion industry compare to $1.03 billion the weekly reporters lost as of March 2 — the first time the outflows have been greater than $1 billion since Feb. 9.
Otherwise, overall the outflows have been moderating since then, down to $973.86 million as of Feb. 16 and to $610.42 million as of Feb. 23, according to Lipper.
The four-week moving average for all municipal bond mutual funds as of March 9 was $1.075 billion, also the lowest so far this year, and comes heels of $1.369 billion as of March 2.
Funds saw their market value drop by $466.750 million in the March 9 week, after seeing their value grow by $2.81 billion the previous week. The only other time the change was lower was back on Feb. 2 when funds’ value dropped by $225.02 million.
