Japan trust fund outflows nearly double in February

TOKYO, March 3 (Reuters) - Risk-averse retail investors pulled money out of Japanese mutual funds in February, leading to a near doubling of the net fund outflow on concerns about the global economy, despite a plunge in the yen in the month.

Cash-rich Japanese individuals hold about $15 trillion in personal assets, and their investment moves are closely watched.

A weaker yen usually helps lift the value of foreign currency-denominated funds, but uncertainty in the global financial markets and high market volatility made investors very wary about holding foreign assets, analysts said.

The Japanese currency JPY= hit a 3-½ month low of 98.72 against the dollar last week, down nearly 13 percent from a 13-year high of 87.10 yen reached in January.

The fall in the yen helped push up the overall outstanding value of such funds by 1.3 percent to 39 trillion yen ($400 billion) by Feb. 27 from 38.5 trillion yen in January, the Nomura Research Institute data showed.

Japanese retail investors were still careful about investing actively in funds amid the global financial crisis, they said.

The net outflow from Japanese publicly placed investment trust funds, which are mainly bought by individuals, jumped 87 percent to 218.8 billion yen in February from 117 billion yen in January, the data showed.

Large fund outflows were seen in foreign hybrid funds and foreign bond and stock funds in February.

But domestic stock funds drew demand as investors picked up bargains, although fund inflows were modest as share prices slumped and many Japanese corporations announced job cuts.

Japanese stock funds saw a net inflow rise to 22.5 billion yen in February, up 49 percent from 15.1 billion yen a month earlier.

Net fund outflows from foreign bond funds rose 27 percent to 94.3 billion yen -- the highest since October -- from 74.5 billion yen in January.

Foreign stock investment trust fund outflows fell 68 percent to 35.5 billion yen in February from 21.1 billion yen in January.

Domestic bond fund outflows rose to 14.3 billion yen in February from 5.2 billion yen in January. ($1=97.43 yen) (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)