TOKYO, May 11 (Reuters) - Cash flows from Japanese retail investors into investment trust funds jumped 74 percent to $4.9 billion in April as investors piled into global high-yield bond funds and other funds, research data shows.
The value of initial launches of investment trusts, similar to mutual funds and known as "toushin", rose to 452.7 billion yen ($4.9 billion), the highest monthly level since September 2006 when it reached 456.2 billion yen, data by Thomson Reuters fund research company Lipper showed.
The number of funds rose to 45 in April, up five from the previous month when inflows fell for the first time in three months.
Japanese individuals, who hold $15 trillion in personal assets, have in general become more willing to chase returns by investing in emerging markets and other high-yielding instruments especially as the global economy has stabilised.
Investment trust funds that invest in global high-yield bonds set up by Japan's top fund manager Nomura Asset Management attracted the biggest amount of funds from retail investors, totalling more than $2 billion.
Nomura Asset's high-yield bond funds drew strong demand as investors were able to select the type of currencies they prefer, including a basket of resource-linked currencies such as the Brazilian real and the Australian dollar as well as a basket of Asian currencies such as the Chinese yuan and the Indonesian rupiah.
Separately, Nomura Asset launched trust funds that invest in shares related to smart grid technologies that drew more than 110 billion yen.
In addition, a fund of Nissay Asset Management, a unit of Japan's top insurer Nippon Life Insurance, that invests in shares of global transport companies attracted more than 50 billion yen. ($1=93.32 yen) (Reporting by Michiko Iwasaki and Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Michael Watson)