Jittery markets see bond funds enjoy largest weekly inflows since Nov 2021

By Lucy Raitano

LONDON (Reuters) – Bond funds recorded their largest weekly inflow since late 2021 while equity funds were sold off, suggesting investors are becoming increasingly risk adverse against a darkening outlook for the global economy.

Investors put $11.7 billion into bonds in the week to Wednesday – the biggest such inflow into fixed income since November 2021, BofA said on Friday in a research note citing EPFR data.

Over the past three weeks the bank’s private clients bought bonds in the largest quantities since 2012, BofA said.

Reflecting a pivot away from riskier assets, equity funds suffered weekly outflows of $2.6 billion, with Europe clocking its 25th week of negative equity flows.

Bucking the trend, financial equities recorded its first inflow since March 2022, raking in $1 billion, while investors bought $1.2 billion of consumer equities – the biggest inflow in ten weeks.

BofA analysts also said their ‘Bull & Bear’ indicator, which seeks to track market trends, remains unchanged at “extreme bearish” level.

(Reporting by Lucy Raitano, editing by Karin Strohecker)