Amid surging demand for exchange-traded funds in April, investors poured $2.97 billion of assets into US high-yield retail funds over the week to April 19, marking a third straight inflow, after seven straight weekly outflows to March 29, according to Morningstar.
Rebounding demand has pared the year-to-date net outflow to $9.9 billion, which compares with a net outflow of $17.6 billion to March 29.
The four-week rolling average increased to positive $1.33 billion, a high for that metric since the period to Nov. 23, 2022. It was positive $368 million through April 12, which marked the first reading in the black in 10 weeks.
ETFs pulled in $3.07 billion for the week, to mark a third straight positive reading for the category, following inflows of $318 million last week and $3.1 billion a week before. That was partially offset by a second straight week of moderate redemptions from mutual funds, which shed $97 million for the latest week and $249 million a week before.
For the year, outflows are now balanced across $5.4 billion from ETFs and $4.5 billion from mutual funds. Last year, mutual funds bore the brunt of the overall $29.7 billion of fund outflows, as investors pulled $25.2 billion from the category, versus the $4.5 billion that exited the ETF space.
The strong inflows came despite down markets over the assessment period. Morningstar valued the total net assets at the funds at $238.5 billion as of April 19, which was up $2.78 billion week-over-week, or slightly less than the level of net inflows for the period. Nevertheless, valuations were up for a third straight week, from a 2023 low at $227.3 billion on March 29. The 2023 peak is $248 billion, on Jan. 18.
For reference, Morningstar valued the funds at $299 billion at the start of 2022, and they pegged the value at $257.9 billion at this point last April. Values bottomed out at $220.1 billion at the end of the third quarter last year.
This article originally appeared on PitchBook News