Italy March Fund Inflows EUR1.9 Billion, Reversing Negative Trend

Italian asset managers registered a net inflow of EUR1.9 billion in March, the first month in a year that hasn't recorded a net outflow, Italian industry association Assogestioni said Thursday.

Included in this total, open-ended funds, which make up the bulk of the amount, registered a net inflow of EUR2.4 billion.

Among these funds, those dedicated to equities registered a net outflow of EUR238 million, while those focused on bonds had an inflow of EUR3.8 billion.

Italy's Treasury has been issuing bonds with relatively high yields to lure investors who are concerned about the country's economic prospects and its enormous debt burden.

Money-market funds had inflows of EUR112 million.

Shares of asset management companies, such as Banca Generali SpA (BGN.MI), Mediolanum SpA (MED.MI) and Azimut SpA (AZM.MI), as well as Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) and UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI), are sensitive to capital flows data as inflows boost their profits from fees and commissions.

-By Zofia Bakowska and Gilles Castonguay, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]