Mutual fund and ETF assets declined in March on “market weakness,” but both investment fund types still recorded positive net sales, a report from the Securities and Investment Management Association (SIMA) shows.
Released Tuesday, the report said mutual fund assets totalled nearly $2.6 trillion by the end of March, representing a decrease of $93.5 billion or 3.5% from the previous month. Meanwhile, ETF assets came in at $771.1 billion at the end of the month, down $10.8 billion or 1.4% on a month-over-month basis.
At the same time, both fund types recorded positive net sales. Mutual funds took in $1.6 billion, while ETFs gathered $19 billion, their second highest monthly net sales amount on record.
“Despite continued positive net sales in March, both mutual fund and ETF assets declined as market weakness more than offset new investor inflows,” the report said.
Among mutual funds, every category experienced positive net sales in March, except for equity funds, which recorded $1.3 billion in net redemptions. That was a steep decline from the $1.8 billion in positive net sales recorded a month prior.
Bond mutual funds took in $140 million, down from $2.6 billion in net sales in February.
Specialty mutual funds raked in $1.5 billion, up from $1.2 billion the previous month.
Money-market mutual funds took in $684 million, an improvement from the $297 million in outflows recorded a month earlier.
On the other hand, ETF net sales were led by equity funds.
Equity ETFs recorded $12 billion in net sales, a slight increase from the $11.6 billion reported a month prior.
Bond ETFs pulled in $3.7 billion, down from $4.4 billion the previous month.
Balanced ETFs reeled in $1.5 billion, down from $1.8 billion in February.
Specialty ETF net sales came in at $1.1 billion, down from $1.2 billion a month earlier.
Money-market ETFs took in $707 million, an improvement from February’s $131 million in net redemptions.