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To: klinetime who wrote (38952)	3/13/1998 7:48:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 61433

U.S. stock funds draw cash in Feb after slow Jan Reuters Story - March 12, 1998 23:17 %US %WASH %FIN %FUND %MMT %DBT SCH TROW V%REUTER P%RTR (Adds details from fund companies, byline, updates throughout; pvs WASHINGTON) By Mary Kelleher NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) - U.S. investors jumped back into stock mutual funds in February, regaining some of their enthusiasm for equity funds after scaling back purchases in January, fund watchers said on Thursday. In February, investors put an estimated $19.5 billion in net new cash into stock mutual funds, up from $14.6 billion in January, according to data released by mutual fund industry trade group the Investment Company Institute (ICI). "The estimated increase from January levels occurred amid generally rising prices on domestic and foreign stock exchanges," the ICI said in a statement. Mutual fund analyst Sheldon Jacobs said: "January (flow) compared to a year ago was off quite a bit. So the fact that February is higher than January I would think is pretty healthy." Fund companies reported solid investor interest in stock funds in February -- including a renewed appetite for aggressive growth and international funds -- as well as in money market funds. The renewed interest came amid sharp gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which finished February with a 639 point or 8.1 percent rise. "February was the strongest month ever for us on a daily average basis," said Greg Gables, a spokesman for giant mutual fund company Charles Schwab Corp. . "We did a record $118 million in business a day in February." Schwab reported its stock and bond funds took in $2.24 billion in February, with international funds receiving $490 million, compared to $94 million in January. Several companies also said investors were buying funds with the same eagerness so far in March. "Investors were looking very optimistic in February and we see no sign of that letting up in March," Gables said. So far in March, Schwab said investors put $462 million into its mutual funds. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. spokesman Edward Giltenan said flows into domestic equity funds so far in March were "almost neck and neck" with the first half of February. Investors were still showing a preference for larger cap funds, and international funds saw a modest pickup in interest, Giltenan said. Vanguard Group of Funds, the world's second largest mutual fund company, said that February was a record month in terms of mutual fund investment. "We had $5.3 billion in net cash inflow in February, which is a record month, topping January 1998's inflow of $5.1 billion," Vanguard spokesman John Worth said. "Of that, about $2.9 billion went into stock funds, money market funds were strong and bond funds took in about $385 million." But Worth said it was hard to determine if investors were cautious or enthusiastic about the stock market's prospects, because they were putting large amounts of cash into both equity funds and less risky money market funds. The ICI estimated that stock and bond and income mutual funds took in $28 billion in February, compared to $25.9 billion in January. Bond and income funds took in an estimated $8.5 billion, cmopared to $11.3 billion in January, it said. "Although lower than January's cash flow, the estimated inflow to bond and income was among the largest in recent years," the group said. The monthly ICI estimates are derived from unpublished weekly estimates based on a survey of long-term funds that account for about 97 percent of long-term mutual fund assets.