Big reversal in mutual fund flows on Trump plans

Long-only equity mutual funds have benefited from a major rally in U.S. equities, reporting net-positive weekly flows for the first time in nearly a year.

Investors have propelled stocks at a torrid pace in response to President Trump's hopes to cut taxes and boost infrastructure spending, analysts say.

Morningstar Senior Analyst Alina Lamy reports that long-only equity mutual funds gained $177.62 million in inflows during the second week of February, the first time equity mutual funds saw net-positive weekly flows since last March when they experienced inflows of $1.45 billion.

“Optimism right after the election in November sparked U.S. equity funds and ETFs, overall, as both saw significant inflows. There was a clear reversal,” Lamy says. “Before that, outflows from the more expensive funds were larger than the inflows into the lower cost funds, so the overall flows were negative; however, the strong inflows into index funds were positive.”

The S&P 500 has continued to set records and stands nearly 12.8% higher than it was on Election Day.

Lamy notes that a majority of recent mutual fund flows have gone to fixed-income and international equity funds.

Vanguard and Fidelity have a combined 12 funds in this ranking of 20. Scroll through to see the long-only equity mutual funds that attracted the most new money over the last year. All data from Morningstar.