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Despite lackluster performance, flows into international and global mutual funds are up more than 500% this year - thanks in large part to Janus and American Funds, which have captured more than 50% of new international and global assets:
Year-to-date through April 30, $39.6 billion flowed into international and global mutual funds, according to Financial Research Corp., Boston. For the same fourmonth period in. 1999, these funds saw $8.9 billion in outflows, according to FRC. The first-quarter intake was $34.4 billion; more than the previous two years combined.
But while inflows have been strong this year, performance generally has been weak.
Performance down
Year-to-date through May 31, every category. of Lipper's world equity funds, except Canadian Funds; is down. International funds returned -7.1% for the period, global funds -3.5%, emerging markets funds -11.6%, European region funds -0.25% and Japanese funds -15.1%, according to Zipper.
David Haywood, analyst at FRC, said the increased inflows this year may be due to strong performance by international funds last year. "People really haven't been thinking about international products because the domestic market has done so well," he said.
But strong performance last year may have encouraged investors to take a second look and helped money management firms get the "marketing engines" going.
Year-to-date through April, the big winners have been Janus Corp., Denver, and American Funds, owned by Capital Research & Management Co., Los Angeles. With $14.2 billion...