Global equity funds see first weekly inflows in seven weeks

(Reuters) – Global equity funds saw money inflows in the week to May 25 as some investors took heart from a rebound in markets this week, after sharp declines in stock markets in the previous seven weeks.

According to Refinitiv Lipper, investors bought a net $6.16 billion worth of global equity funds, marking their first weekly net buying since April 6.

The MSCI all country world index has gained over 3% this week, after slumping about 12.7% in the last seven weeks on worries that aggressive rate increases to tame inflation could send the global economy into a tailspin.

The big inflows into global equity funds were also due to the creation of new shares in the equity exchange-traded funds (ETF), Jefferies said in a note.

The data showed equity ETFs saw inflows worth $15.76 billion in the week, the highest in nine weeks.

U.S. and Asian equity funds had inflows of $4.61 billion and $1.22 billion, respectively, but European funds attracted just $0.13 billion.

Chinese equity funds obtained $0.58 billion, marking their first weekly net buying in seven weeks.

Data for sector funds showed industrials drew inflows of $713 million but financials and tech continued to face outflows, amounting $1.74 billion and $1.44 billion, respectively.

Meanwhile, investors sold a net $9.94 billion of bond funds in the week, their eight consecutive weekly outflow.

Global investors exited short- and medium-term bond funds worth $5.14 billion, while high yield funds witnessed outflows of $2.18 billion.

However, inflation linked funds obtained $0.59 billion and government bond funds gained $3.85 billion, posting inflows for a fifth straight week.

On the other hand, investors purchased $23.13 billion of money market funds after three weeks of net selling in a row.

Data for commodity funds showed gold and precious metal funds received $1.36 billion after four weeks of net selling but energy funds saw outflows of $29 million.

An analysis of 24,276 emerging market funds showed investors sold $1.5 billion of bond funds and $332 million of equity funds, marking the seventh weekly outflow in a row.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)