U.S.-listed bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds posted an outflow of $34 billion for December, the fourth-highest on record, amid rising interest rates and price declines in fixed income assets, TrimTabs Investment Research said in a report dated Jan. 6.

The average bond fund saw a price decline of 1.4 percent last month, bringing the 2013 total drop to 5.7 percent. As a result, "it is not surprising that outflows intensified," said David Santschi, Chief Executive Officer at TrimTabs, in a note.

Bond mutual funds redeemed $33.1 billion, while bond ETFs redeemed $900 million.

Bond funds posted a seventh consecutive month of outflows, which likely comes as "a shock to asset managers accustomed to year after year of steady inflows into credit funds," TrimTabs said.

For the full year in 2013, investors poured $352 billion into all equity mutual funds and ETFs, easily beating the previous record $324 billion of inflows in 2000.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 29.6 percent in 2013.