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Investors in mutual funds investing in U.S. and foreign stocks ramped up their withdrawals by 39% to an estimated $12.98 billion in the week through Aug. 3, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Increasing concerns about weak domestic growth, U.S. debt levels and the euro-zone debt crisis continued to drive investors to the sidelines. Over all, long-term mutual funds, a group excluding money-market funds, had outflows of $16.94 billion in the week ended August 3.

For the week, equity funds had outflows of $12.98 billion, compared with outflows of $9.32 billion the prior week. Investors withdrew $10.44 billion from U.S. equity funds and pulled $2.55 billion from foreign stock funds.

The withdrawals marked the 15th consecutive week of estimated outflows from stock funds; according to ICI estimates, equity funds haven't seen a weekly net positive flow since April.

To Dylan Cathers, mutual fund analyst at Standard & Poor's, the increase in withdrawals makes sense, and he foresees even bigger amounts taken out of equities in the next week.

"The last time we had a sharp stock-market decline was not that long ago, and that's part of the anxiety," said Cathers, referring to the market declines in 2008 and early 2009. Investors, he said, remain uncertain about where to put their money. "Stuffing it in mattresses can be better than losing it in the stock market" is how some investors see it, he said.

Meanwhile, the ICI reported bond funds had sharply higher outflows of $2.86 billion, compared with week-earlier outflows of $223 million. Investors removed $2.2 billion from taxable funds, while outflows from municipal funds totaled $661 million.

Investors also pulled $1.09 billion from hybrid funds after prior-week outflows of $73 million. Such funds can invest in both stocks and fixed-income assets.