Morningstar announces April 2013 Flows

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows through April 2013. While April inflows for long-term mutual funds stood at a healthy $37.8 billion, they continued to moderate from levels seen earlier this year. Inflows for U.S. equity funds slowed to $895 million, their lowest intake this year. Despite tepid interest in core, intermediate-term bond funds, taxable-bond funds overall took in $19.4 billion to mark their 20th consecutive month of inflows. Morningstar estimates net flow by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund.

Additional highlights from Morningstar's report on mutual fund flows:

• International-equity funds saw the second-strongest inflows among category groups, with $8.4 billion. Relative to assets, alternative funds had the strongest organic growth rate among category groups, taking in $3.8 billion.
• The bank-loan category attracted more assets than any other category in April, leading the taxable-bond category group for the third consecutive month. Assets in the category have risen 30 percent for the year to date.
• Although taxable-bond funds have led all category groups in 2013, top asset-gathering categories within the group have shifted. Inflows for intermediate-term bond, high-yield bond, and emerging-markets bond funds have slowed from levels seen in 2012, while bank-loan and nontraditional bond funds have gained ground.
• Within the U.S. equity category group, investors continued to prefer index funds and the value style over growth. Including exchange-traded funds, active U.S. equity funds had outflows of $5.2 billion, compared with inflows to index funds of $9.6 billion in April.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/aprilflows13.