* Total European fund assets up 12.4 pct since 2008

* Ucits funds net assets up 7.7 pct in third quarter

* Equity funds main beneficiary, money market funds decline

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - European fund assets have increased 12.4 percent in value since the start of the year, as investors swapped low-yielding cash for equities and bonds, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama) said on Tuesday.

Assets under management with European funds rose 7.2 percent in Q3 to 6.84 trillion euros ($10.29 trillion), benefiting from the impact of rising stock prices and net inflows of 70 billion euros to Ucits funds, which can be sold across the EU.

Ucits funds accounted for 75 percent of the total European fund market at the end of September 2009 and saw net assets increase 7.7 percent to 5.16 trillion euros in the third quarter, Efama said.

Ucits - undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities - follow a set of EU rules that allow asset managers to market funds throughout Europe on the basis of a single authorisation in one member state.

Equity funds were the main beneficiaries of improving investor appetite for Ucits funds with a 15 percent increase in assets in the third quarter. Balanced funds were up 9 percent and bond fund assets increased 8 percent.