Stock funds worldwide attract $20.4b inflows in latest week: BofA

NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters): Investors worldwide poured $20.4 billion into stock funds in the week ended Oct. 29, the largest in more than a year, data from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report showed on Friday.

U.S-focused stock funds worldwide posted $14.5 billion of inflows, mostly via exchange-traded funds, the largest in 58 weeks, according to the report, which also cited data from fund-tracker EPFR Global.

"Investors used the stock sell-off earlier this month as a buying opportunity," said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West. "There are still a large number of investors that have missed out on much of the stock market rally, or have been under-invested in stocks."

With global bond yields as low as they are and a strengthening dollar, the US equity market has become "an even more attractive place to park global assets," Anderson added. "Relative strength in the US economy only reinforces the trend."

The US economy grew at a 3.5 per cent annualized rate between July and September, the government said on Thursday. Anderson said the gross domestic product growth figure "was right in the sweet spot," well above the consensus estimate looking for 3 per cent and his firm's own estimate of 3.1 per cent.

"There were respectable contributions from nearly all major components of GDP, including consumer spending and business investment, though both slowed from the second quarter's torrid pace," he said.