Global equity funds see biggest weekly inflows in nearly 2 months: Lipper

REUTERS: Global equity funds lured their biggest weekly inflows in two months in the week ended 18 August, bolstered by strong corporate earnings and sustained hopes of an economic recovery. 

According to Lipper data, global equity funds received $ 19.64 billion, the biggest inflow since late June.

US equity funds attracted the majority of the money, securing inflows worth $ 13.3 billion, while Europe and Asian equity funds lagged, bagging just $ 4.5 billion and $ 0.5 billion respectively.

The majority of inflows going to North America was likely “a defensive measure towards burgeoning risk from the East”, said OCBC in a report.

Asia’s lacklustre flows came due to a turmoil in Afghanistan and fresh concerns about an economic slowdown in China, where industrial production and retail sales missed forecasts in July.

Chinese equity funds faced outflows worth $ 341 million in the week.

By sector, financial sector funds lured $ 1.46 billion, the biggest in 10 weeks. Tech sector funds, on the other hand, recorded outflows worth $ 666 million, after five consecutive weeks of inflows.

Global bond funds received a net $ 11.3 billion, which was their fourth consecutive weekly inflow.

Global money market funds, however, witnessed outflows for the first time in five weeks, as investors favoured riskier stocks markets.

Among commodity funds, precious metal funds faced outflows worth $ 675 million, the biggest weekly outflow in more than four months, as gold prices slumped to a more than four-month low last week.

An analysis of 23,767 emerging market funds showed investors bought a net $ 1.14 billion in equity funds, a 56% increase from the previous week’s inflows, but sold $ 158 million in bond funds.