A surging stock market, coupled with slow and steady trades into equities, brought 401(k) investors in April to their highest level of equity exposure since 2001, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) index.

During the month, nearly all the trading days favored equities over fixed income; four days favored fixed income funds, and 17 days favored equity funds. Also of note was the fact that April has no days of above-normal trading activity.

The average net trading activity was a mere 0.013% of 401(k) balances—the lowest value since December 2019.

401(k) investors transferred an average of 0.16% of their starting balance during the month. Year-to-date, this has been a total of 0.56%.

Trading inflows went mainly to large U.S. equities, target-date funds (TDFs) and international equities. Outflows came primarily from stable value funds, bond funds and money market funds.

Asset classes with the most trading inflows in April were large U.S. equities (taking in 44% of inflows valued at $184 million) followed by TDFs (17%; $171 million) and international equities (16%; $68 million).

Asset classes with the most trading outflows in April were stable value funds (48%; $204 million), bond funds (24%; $106 million) and money market funds (13%; $53 million).

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