William H. Gross' Total Return Fund, the world's biggest mutual fund, had its third straight month of withdrawals as investors continued to flee bonds.
Clients pulled an estimated $7.5 billion from Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Total Return Fund, research firm Morningstar Inc. said Friday in an e-mailed statement. The withdrawals left the fund with $262 billion in assets at the end of July, according to Morningstar.
Mark Porterfield, a PIMCO spokesman, didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the withdrawals.
The flight from bond funds was triggered by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who rattled markets in May and June by outlining a plan to end the central bank's unprecedented asset purchases. Mr. Bernanke told reporters June 19 that policymakers might start decreasing those purchases later this year and end them by mid-2014 if the economy meets expectations.
Investors pulled about $60 billion from U.S. bond funds in June, the biggest monthly redemptions in records going back to 1961, according to estimates from the Investment Company Institute. They've pulled about $9.5 billion from the funds through July 24, according to ICI estimates.
PIMCO Total Return Fund had a record $9.9 billion in redemptions during June as the manager overall had $14.5 billion in net withdrawals.
