Global equity fund inflows ease to a four-week low

(Reuters) -Global equity funds attracted the smallest weekly inflows in four weeks in the week through May 7, amid concerns about the impact of tariffs on the global economy and as investors awaited anticipated U.S.-China trade talks for more clues.

According to LSEG Lipper data, investors bought just $856 million worth of global equity funds during the week, when compared with their $6.13 billion worth of net purchases in the previous week.

European equity funds witnessed robust demand for a fourth successive week with investors ploughing in a net $12.81 billion into these equity funds.

Asian funds also saw a net $3.32 billion worth of inflows while in the U.S., there were outflows for a fourth consecutive week, to the tune of $16.22 billion, on a net basis.

Sectoral funds, meanwhile, saw net selling for a ninth successive week, grossing approximately $2.6 billion for the week.

The financial sector with $1.19 billion and the metals and mining sector with $478 million in net sales, led sectoral outflows.

Global bond funds, however, gained popularity during the week as these funds saw weekly inflows totalling a net $11.4 billion, the highest in nine weeks.

Dollar-denominated bond funds witnessed a revival in demand with investors allocating a net $4.33 billion to these funds, the biggest amount in eight weeks. Global short-term and high yield funds also witnessed a significant $1.91 billion and $1.29 billion worth of net purchases, respectively.

Global money market funds saw a hefty $66.3 billion worth of weekly inflows, the biggest since February 5.

At the same time, gold and precious metal commodity funds experienced their second weekly outflow in 13 weeks, to the tune of $655 million.

Data covering 29,582 emerging market funds showed, equity funds received approximately $1.48 billion while bond funds gained a net $1.56 billion, a second successive weekly inflow in each segment.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Fenton)