Global equity funds attracted fourth weekly inflows amid Fed rate cut hopes
Global equity funds attracted inflows for the fourth straight week through October 15, as dovish comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reinforced expectations that the central bank will lower interest rates at its meeting later this month.
But investor interest remained cautious amid renewed US-China trade tensions after President Donald Trump indicated he might reduce certain trade ties with Beijing.
LSEG Lipper data showed that investors made net purchases of $2.17 billion worth of global equity funds during the week in line with weekly net purchases of nearly $2 billion in the previous week.
US and Asian equity funds each recorded inflows of nearly $1 billion, while European funds recorded weekly net outflows of $1.62 billion ending a 10-week trend of net buying.
Meanwhile, equity sector funds saw increased demand as they received $6.61 billion, up nearly 50% from the previous week’s net purchases of $4.39 billion.
The technology and healthcare sectors led sectoral net investment as they received approximately $1.91 billion and $1.38 billion in weekly inflows, respectively.
Meanwhile, global bond fund inflows fell to their lowest level in 16 weeks as investors poured just $7.97 billion into the funds.
However, demand for government bond funds surged to the highest level in five months with weekly net inflows of $3.22 billion. Investors also bought $2 billion in short-term bond funds but lost $1.08 billion in loan participation funds.
Meanwhile, investors divested $6.72 billion in money market funds, and partially liquidated the previous week’s net investments of $64.46 billion.
Gold and precious metals commodity funds attracted $2.83 billion, the 20th weekly inflow in 21 weeks.
In emerging markets, investors ended eight straight weeks of buying with weekly net divestments of $1.04 billion. Meanwhile, bond funds generated weekly net inflows of $2.38 billion, based on combined data from 29,687 funds.
Source: Reuters
