Institutional investors rush to equity funds - Lipper

NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Institutional investors poured
money into equity funds in the week ended Sept. 19 as the
Federal Reserve launched another stimulus round, but retail
investors stayed away from stocks, data from Thomson Reuters
Lipper service showed on T hur sday.
U.S.-domiciled equity funds recorded net inflows of $11.415
billion on $13.334 billion net buying of exchange-traded funds -
the biggest advance in such ETFs since the nearly $15 billion
net inflows in the week ended Sept. 14, 2011.
In contrast, retail investors pulled out of equity funds,
for net outflows of $1.919 billion.
ETFs are generally believed to represent the investment
behavior of institutional investors, while mutual funds are
thought to represent retail investors.
While the jump into ETFs was expected because markets had
largely anticipated the latest round of quantitative easing from
the Fed, the exit from mutual funds - for the sixth week in a
row - was a surprise, said Matthew Lemieux, research analyst at
Lipper.
"Investors in general aren't convinced that equity mutual
funds are the vehicle they want to get equity exposure in the
aggregate," he said.
Investors could be moving into ETFs or bond funds instead,
or could simply be drawing down their equity exposure, he said.
"The hope is they're using ETFs, because we don't want them
to miss out on the whole run up," Lemieux added.
The net inflows to equity funds coincided with a 1.7 percent
increase in the S&P 500, fueled by the Fed saying it
would pump $40 billion into the U.S. economy each month until it
saw a sustained upturn in the weak jobs market.
Money market funds had net outflows of $9.197 billion, more
than reversing two weeks of gains.
Taxable bond funds, considered something of a safe haven
with interest rates at record lows, had a net entry of $4.948
billion, the 11th straight week of gains.
Corporate high-yield funds notched a 15th straight week of
net inflows, gaining $1.36 billion. Investment grade corporate
bond funds had inflows of $1.76 billion, a 14th straight week of
net gains.
Municipal bond funds had net gains of $256 million. Since
September of last year, those funds have had net outflows in
only three separate weeks.
Excluding ETFs, equity income funds pulled in a net $161
million. Net gains rose to about $215 million when ETFs are
included.
Equity income funds have been relatively consistent gainers
over recent years, providing an alternative for yield-hungry
investors balking at record low interest rates.
 The weekly Lipper fund flow data is compiled from reports
issued by U.S.-domiciled mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
The following is a broad breakdown of the flows for the
week, including exchange-traded funds (in $ billions):

Sector Flow Chg % Assets Count
($Bil) Assets ($Bil)
All Equity Funds 11.415 0.40 2,932.636 10,049
Domestic Equities 9.383 0.43 2,228.047 7,456
Non-Domestic Equities 2.032 0.30 704.588 2,593
All Taxable Bond Funds 4.948 0.34 1,463.807 4,632
All Money Market Funds -9.197 -0.40 2,290.560 1,400
All Municipal Bond Funds 0.256 0.08 309.802 1,336