MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT HITS 2-YEAR LOW.

Byline: Edward Wyatt The New York Times

The amount of money flowing into stock mutual funds fell sharply in July to its lowest level in almost two years.

The Investment Company Institute, a trade group, estimated that investors put $3.5 billion into equity mutual funds last month, down from $14.5 billion in June.

That is the lowest monthly total since November 1994, when $3 billion flowed in, and represents a 20 percent decline from the average monthly flow of $18 billion over the last year.

Bond funds suffered estimated net outflows of $1.5 billion in July, the second month that more money left those funds than came in. The institute will report final figures later this month.

After record amounts of cash flowing into mutual funds had made headlines all year, the industry got an unpleasant shock July 19, when, after a particularly volatile period, AMG Data Services, an independent collector of figures on fund cash flows, reported that shareholders withdrew $4 billion in a single week.

The resulting clamor caused some fund companies to clam up about cash flows. Over the last two years, Twentieth Century Investors, based in Kansas City, Mo., has frequently talked about money flowing into its funds, which are known for a particularly aggressive investment style.

But late in July, after some of its largest funds had lost nearly 25 percent of their value in a period of about eight weeks, Twentieth Century declined to discuss what its investors were doing.

Gunnar Hughes, a spokesman for the company, said that James Stowers III, Twentieth Century's president and the son of its founder, had questioned whether providing the data ``is making matters worse for investors instead of better.''

Representatives for Putnam Mutual Funds, the sixth-largest fund, and T. Rowe Price Associates, the 11th largest, also expressed concern that investors would trade on the information.

Price will continue to provide information on general trends in cash flows - last month, more money came into stock funds than went out, although the net inflows were below June's - but will no longer provide specific amounts.