Short takes: Unit Trust Assets Show 24% Year-to-Year Gain

WASHINGTON - Total assets in unit investment trusts reached $6.82 billion in July, jumping 24% from the same period a year earlier, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Investors poured $730 million of fresh assets into unit investment trusts in July, the trade association's data show. Most of the growth was fueled by equity investment trusts, which drew $384 million in fresh assets that month.

Total assets of equity investment trusts reached $3.81 billion in July, up a whopping 86.7% from the year earlier period.

Unit trusts that invest solely in bonds did not attract as many assets.

Tax-free bond trusts gathered $270.5 million in July, but the total assets for the first seven months of 1995 dropped to $2.24 billion from $2.39 billion in the year earlier period.

Taxable bond trusts captured a paltry $75.3 million in July. Total assets in bond trusts were $2.04 billion.

The securities in a unit investment trust are never traded. They are picked by a portfolio manager for a particular period of time.