U.S. muni bond funds post $305.7 million in outflows: Lipper

[July 10, 2015] (Reuters) - U.S. municipal bond funds reported $305.7 million of net outflows in the week ended July 8, compared with $1.2 billion in outflows in the previous week, according to data released by Lipper on Thursday.

The four-week moving average remained negative at $507.8 million, said Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters.

High-yield muni bond funds reported outflows of $122.8 million, compared with outflows of $492.2 million in the previous week.

Phil Fischer, managing director of municipal research and global indices at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said the troubling news from Puerto Rico, Greece, and China have impacted municipal bond fund flows.

"Individual investors chase returns. When we have negative returns, as we have with this volatility, we'll get outflows," said Fischer. "They have not been so large as to change the pricing in the secondary market."

(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by James Dalgleish and Diane Craft)

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