Taxable-Bond Funds Top Flows in April

Taxable-bond funds had the best month of any asset class with inflows of more than $17.7 billion. Municipal-bond funds, with redemptions of $3.8 billion, was the only asset class to see outflows.  

Investors added nearly $3.9 billion to multisector bond funds in April, just short of the category’s record inflow of $4.2 billion in March, to drive inflows to taxable-bond funds.    

Inflows to bank-loan funds declined for the third consecutive month to $3.4 billion, although this monthly total would easily have been a record in any month prior to December, Morningstar said. Inflation-protected bond funds, with nearly $1.2 billion, saw greater inflows in April than in any of the previous 12 months.   

U.S. stock funds collected assets of $2.1 billion in April, after losing nearly $1.0 billion to outflows in March. Small- and mid-cap U.S. stock funds saw combined inflows of $3.4 billion while large-cap funds suffered withdrawals, which was also the case in March.   

International-stock funds, which have seen inflows of $93.5 billion since April 2009, added another $2.9 billion in April. U.S. stock funds have seen outflows of more than $56.2 billion during the same period.

The complete Morningstar report is at http://www.global.morningstar.com/aprilflows11.