Mutual Funds Flat in Quarter; Lackluster Showing Contrasts With Gains Last Year
Trapped in a moody, directionless market, mutual funds generally went nowhere during the first three months of this year.</br></br>Their lackluster showing was in sharp contrast to the huge gains they scored last year, when stock funds soared 36 percent and bond funds rose 18 percent.</br></br>A big chunk of the 1991 gains came during an end-of-the-year rally, which ran out of steam when it appeared that interest rates had bottomed and the economy remained anemic. With their momentum gone, mutual funds had to settle for fractional gains and losses during the first quarter.</br></br>General stock funds - there are 882 in that category - lost an average of 0.16 percent during January, February and March, while 655 fixed-income funds gained only 0.07 percent.</br></br>Money market funds turned in a slightly better showing than the overall stock and bond averages. The money funds, caught in a low-interest-rate environment, gained an average of 0.94 percent during the quarter.