CHICAGO, April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar,
Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment
research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and
exchange-traded fund asset flows through March 2010. Open-end mutual funds saw inflows of
$47.5 billion in March, bringing
total inflows for the first quarter to $125.2 billion. Investors pulled $148.2 billion out of money market funds in
March. In the first quarter alone, $324.4
billion exited money markets, the largest quarterly outflow
Morningstar has tracked. Inflows for ETFs hit $19.7 billion in March, bringing total net
inflows for the industry to $7.7
billion for the first quarter. A total of 18 new ETFs
launched during the month, and J.P. Morgan Chase and Eaton Vance
took preliminary steps to begin offering actively managed ETFs.
Additional highlights from the report on mutual
funds:
- International-stock funds collected $19.7 billion for the quarter, the asset class's
strongest quarterly inflow since the fourth quarter of 2007.
- Investors continued to favor bond funds over stock funds, a
trend that has now endured for 27 straight months, adding
$35.6 billion to the asset class in
March.
- Despite investors' tendency to chase performance, they have
ignored some hot market segments. Latin
America stock funds gained 116% over the past 12 months, yet
they gathered assets of just $780
million. Domestic real estate and global real estate funds
soared 105% and 73%, respectively, over the past year, yet they saw
inflows of only $787 million and
$679 million, respectively.
- Five of the 10 funds with the greatest inflows for the quarter
were Vanguard funds. Harbor Funds had strong inflows in March,
while Loomis Sayles experienced its
worst quarter since the fourth quarter of 2008.
Additional highlights from the report on ETFs:
- After 30 consecutive months of net inflows, iShares Barclays
TIPS Bond experienced $74 million in
net outflows. Instead, investors expressed preference for
short-duration and "junk" bonds in March.
- Vanguard Emerging Markets VWO amassed another $784 million last month, bringing its quarterly
inflow to $2.8 billion, while iShares
MSCI Emerging Markets EEM shed another $719
million in the month and $4.2
billion for the quarter.
- After outflows of $902 million in
January and February, SPDR Gold Trust reversed course and gathered
assets of $827 million in March.
United States Oil led outflows for the commodity asset class with
$187 million.
- Leveraged ETFs with bullish exposure experienced outflows of
roughly $1.8 billion, while those
offering bearish exposure pulled in $1.4
billion in new assets in March.
To view the complete report, please visit
http://www.global.morningstar.com/marchflows10.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent
investment research in North
America, Europe,
Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of
Internet, software, and print-based products and services for
individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar
provides data on approximately 350,000 investment offerings,
including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with
real-time global market data on more than 4 million equities,
indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in
addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has
operations in 20 countries and minority ownership positions in
companies based in two other countries.
©2010 Morningstar Inc. All rights reserved.
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Media Contact:
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Carling Spelhaug, 312-696-6150 or
carling.spelhaug@morningstar.com
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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.