After starting the year off with new records set for assets under management (AUM) last month, mutual fund and ETF AUM “hit new all-time highs” once again in February, data from the Securities and Investment Management Association (SIMA) show.
In a report Tuesday, SIMA said mutual fund AUM reached $2.6 trillion at the end of February, up by $76.5 billion or 3% from a month prior. This was the second consecutive monthly increase in mutual fund assets.
Meanwhile, ETF AUM totalled $781.9 billion, representing a $38-billion or 5.1% increase over the same period.
Among mutual funds, balanced funds were the best-selling category, which SIMA said was “a trend not seen since February 2022.” They gathered $5.2 billion in net sales. By comparison, in January, they took in $1.5 billion.
Bond mutual funds followed, recording $2.6 billion in creations, down from $4.2 billion in January.
Equity mutual funds posted $1.8 billion in net sales during the month, up from $588 million in redemptions in January, while specialty mutual funds took in $1.2 billion in net sales, down from $1.4 billion.
Money-market mutual funds were in the red for the month, posting $297 million in net redemptions. This was an improvement from January though, when the fund category registered $742 million in net redemptions.
In total, mutual fund net sales amounted to $10.5 billion in February, nearly double the $5.8 billion recorded the previous month.
On the ETF side, equity funds prevailed as the best-selling category. They took in $11.6 billion in net sales in February, compared to $14.1 billion the previous month.
Bond ETFs posted $4.4 billion in creations, up from $3.8 billion in January.
Balanced ETFs received $1.8 billion in the month, up from $1.7 billion, while specialty ETFs reeled in $1.2 billion, down from $1.9 billion.
Money-market ETFs suffered $131 billion in net redemptions in February, down from $88 million in net redemptions a month prior.
Total ETF net sales came in at $18.9 billion in the month, a dip from $21.4 billion this January, but still greater than the combined net sales of last January and February, SIMA noted.