Global equity funds see biggest inflow in three weeks

Global equity funds lured big inflows in the seven days to Feb. 2 on optimism over strong earnings from US technology companies and on hopes that inflation would ease later this year, according to Reuters.
Investors secured global equity funds of $14.34 billion in their biggest weekly purchase since Jan. 12, Refinitiv Lipper data showed.
Strong earnings from tech firms including Apple Inc, Alphabet and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, boosted investor appetite during the week. Investors purchased European and Asian equity funds of $15.44 billion and $3.16 billion respectively, while selling US equity funds of $7.9 billion. Tech and consumer discretionary sector equity funds posted outflows of over $1.1 billion each, while financials obtained inflows worth $0.64 billion.
Global bond funds witnessed net selling for a fourth successive week amounting to $4.85 billion.
Global high yield bond funds led with outflows of $5.98 billion, the biggest since March 2020.
"We expect 2022 to be a volatile year for all risk assets, including high yield bonds," said Ryan O'Malley, portfolio manager at Sage Advisory Services.
Investors sold $2 billion worth of short- and medium-term bonds finds. Government bond funds drew inflows of $1.19 billion. Meanwhile, inflation protected bond funds posted outflows worth $1.95 billion, their largest in 22 months.
Global money market funds witnessed outflows worth $21.72 billion after seeing some small purchases in the previous week.
Among commodities, precious metal funds attracted inflows of $426 million in a third straight week of net buying, although energy faced a fourth straight weekly outflow, amounting to $308 million.
An analysis of 24,000 emerging market funds showed bond funds received $360 million in net buying after three consecutive weeks of outflows, while equity funds pulled in $2.31 billion worth of inflows.