Global equity funds see outflows amid inflation concerns
8:18 am Friday, February 23rd, 2024
(Reuters) – Investors reduced their holdings in global equity funds in the seven days up to Feb. 21 as unexpected robust inflation data tempered expectations for an imminent Federal Reserve rate cut.
According to data from LSEG, investors sold global equity funds of a net $2.64 billion during the week after about $10.32 billion worth of net purchases in the previous week.
Concerns over the Federal Reserve’s rate strategy prompted some profit-taking in equity funds following high U.S. producer, and consumer price figures.
Despite this, the MSCI World Stock Index hit a record 761.3 on Thursday, buoyed by Nvidia’s NVDA.O prediction of a near triple increase in first-quarter revenue, sparking a rally in AI-related chip stocks globally.
U.S. and European equity funds experienced outflows of $4.86 billion and $271 million, respectively during the week. Asian funds, meanwhile, attracted about $2.02 billion worth of inflows.
Among sector funds, financials, healthcare, and metals and mining sectors lost $594 million, $574 million and $420 million, respectively in net selling and lead sectoral outflows.
Conversely, global bond funds attracted $9.72 billion in net inflows, marking a ninth consecutive week of net buying.
Global high-yield bond funds received $1.09 billion, the largest inflow in three weeks. Investors also added $719 million to government bond funds and $225 million to loan participation funds.
Money market funds, however, experienced $9.69 billion in net outflows, continuing a trend for a second week.
In commodities, precious metal funds saw their eighth consecutive week of outflows, totaling $767 million, while energy funds garnered $42 million in net buying.
Data covering 29,685 emerging market funds showed equity funds attracted $269 million, the third weekly inflow in a row. Bond funds, however, saw $1.1 billion worth of outflows, the second successive week of net selling.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Ros Russell)
