Investors put municipal bond mutual fund flows back in the black this past week.
There were net inflows in the week ended June 22 of $137 million for muni bond funds that report their flows weekly, according to Lipper FMI. Investors the previous week withdrew $172 million from muni funds, following on the heels of recently ending a 29-week trend of outflows.
During that span, money had been flowing out of muni bond funds, commonly at weekly rates of more than $1 billion, every week from mid-November to earlier this month. In the week of Jan. 19, investors in weekly reporting funds yanked more than $4 billion, Lipper reported.
Assets for funds that report their flows weekly climbed more than $1 billion this week to $318.8 billion from $317.4 billion the previous week. The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds rocketed up $1.2 billion. The previous week, they reported a jump of just $64 million.
For all municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly, the four-week moving average inched up to a mere $49 million outflow from a $157.3 million outflow the week before.
High-yield muni funds continued their strong performance. Funds that report weekly saw inflows of about $101 million, Lipper reported. The previous week, high-yield funds reported inflows of $38.6 million. High-yield bond funds have reported inflows six out of the past seven weeks, Lipper numbers show.
In addition, assets for high-yield funds that report their flows weekly increased to $39.59 billion from $39.24 billion the previous week. The value of the holdings for weekly reporting funds powered upward by $257 million, the highest number in five weeks. Last week, they jumped by just $39 million.
For all high-yield muni bond funds that report their flows weekly, the four-week moving average rose to a $44.1 million inflow from a $22.6 million inflow the week before.
