Bill Gross’s Pimco Total Return Fund, the world’s biggest mutual fund, attracted $1.3 billion last month as it continued to outperform peers.

The eighth straight month of net deposits into the mutual fund contributed to $9.3 billion in new cash for the year through Aug. 31 and helped lift assets to $272.5 billion, Chicago-based research firm Morningstar Inc. said Tuesday.

Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Total Return Fund advanced 8.1 percent this year through last week, beating 97 percent of similarly managed mutual funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gross had what he termed “a stinker” in 2011 after eliminating U.S. Treasuries early in the year and missing a rally as investors rushed to the safety of government-backed debt. The Total Return Fund returned 4.2 percent last year, trailing 70 percent of peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, his worst year since at least 1995. Clients pulled out about $5 billion in 2011, according to Morningstar.

Pimco, based in Newport Beach, California, is a unit of the Munich-based insurer Allianz SE.

Mark Porterfield, a spokesman for Pimco, declined to comment.