Investors Return To Funds

Investors poured $4.39 billion into stock mutual funds in the week ended Wednesday, as the stock market rebounded from July’s tumble, according to AMG Data Services, an Arcata, California company that tracks mutual-fund money flows.

Net inflows almost tripled from last week, when investors put $1.61 billion into stock funds.

So far, August looks to be on a par with June’s inflows. That’s good news for mutual fund companies, which witnessed investors reducing their purchases or even withdrawing money in July as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped about 4.5 percent.

In August, the S&P 500 has jumped back, climbing 4.6 percent through yesterday.

General growth funds, which invest in companies expected to have higher-than-average earnings growth, were the most popular funds in the latest week, attracting $1.27 billion, compared with $446 million last week.

Investors pumped $484 million into so-called aggressive growth funds. In the previous week, they added $327 million. Emerging growth funds attracted $370 million, compared with a withdrawal of $166 million in the previous week. Growth and income funds, those seeking to provide investors with gains from stocks and dividend payments, gathered $752 million, compared with $527 million a week earlier.

International funds gained $650 million, more than double the $292 million of the week before.

Among industry group funds, those that invest in real estate proved the most popular, gaining $50 million in the latest week, compared with $47 million the week before, AMG said. Investors withdrew $13 million from technology funds after plowing $57 million into these funds last week.

Taxable bond funds attracted $92 million, after gathering $195 million the week before.

Interest rates have fallen since the end of July, and the Federal Reserve kept the federal funds rate unchanged at its meeting earlier this week. The benchmark 30-year U.S. Treasury stands at 6.88 percent today, down from 6.97 at the end of July.

Still, government bond funds lost assets for the seventh week in a row. In the latest week, investors pulled $233.5 million from these funds, after withdrawing $86 million the week before.