Investors put nearly $45 billion into stock and bond funds in April, according to Financial Research Corporation’s latest study, which was released late Thursday. Equity-focused funds had net inflows of $15.4 billion, while those with a corporate objective had $14.0 billion in net inflows.
SPDR S&P 500 ETF attracted $2.7 billion in May to lead the fund sales chart, FRC reports, followed by Powershares QQQ Trust with $2.1 billion, iShares MSCI Emerging Market with $1.8 billion and the Templeton Global Bond Fund with $1.7 billion. (FRC’s research includes exchange traded funds and excludes money market funds in its universe of mutual funds. Fund-of-funds are included in most data but are excluded from firm and industry-level totals.)
The top net flows in April by Morningstar category are diversified emerging markets with $4.7 billion, intermediate-term bonds with $4.4 billion, large-blend funds with $4.3 billion, multi-sector bonds with $3.3 billion and world bonds with $3.3 billion.
In terms of total assets, Vanguard remains the largest fund complex with $1.52 trillion, followed by American Funds with $1.03 trillion and Fidelity with $953.9 billion.
Year to date, Vanguard’s assets are up 9.6%, American Funds’ 8.3% and Fidelity’s 18.2%. State Street Global Advisors’ assets have grown more than 33% in the first four months of 2011, while Dimensional Fund Advisors’ are up 30% in the same period.