At the same time, the industry's trade group said a net $11.3 billion was invested in bond funds, the highest monthly net inflow since August 1993.

That was a $3 billion jump over November sales and the largest monthly inflow since just before the October 1987 market crash.

That net monthly inflow is second only to the $103.9 billion in May 2003, based on Treasury data.

Lipper says investors pumped an estimated $380 million into those Asian funds last month, the biggest monthly inflow in more than two years.

Franklin saw its best monthly inflow ever during July, a spokeswoman said.

In each of the year's first five months, monthly net inflows exceeded $20 billion, a level never reached before this year.

The peak monthly inflow into domestic stock funds, $10.2 billion, came in March 1993.

British investors pulled out a record £864m from equity funds, compared with monthly average inflows of £506m for the previous 12 months.

The surge continued to grow in the first five months of this year, when average monthly inflows totaled nearly $25 billion.

The net outflow in the Isa sector contrasted sharply to a monthly average inflow of £186m over the previous 12 months.