(Reuters) – Global equity funds lured fewer inflows in the week to Sept. 8 as investors turned cautious due to uncertainty over the pace of economic recovery and shied away from riskier assets.
Investors purchased a net $8.54 billion in global equity funds in the week, a 54% drop compared with the net buying in the previous week.
Concerns over the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19 and its impact on the economic recovery weighed on investor sentiment last week.
Also, markets were assessing data showing the U.S. economy created the fewest jobs in seven months in August and wondering how the U.S. central bank will respond.
European equity funds attracted an inflow of 9.17 billion, while U.S. and Asian equity funds had outflows.
Within sector funds, inflows into healthcare and tech funds dropped sharply, while financial and industrial sector funds faced outflows.
Meanwhile, global money market funds secured a net $22.17 billion, after seeing two weeks of outflows, underscoring the risk-off sentiment during the week.
Global bond funds saw inflows for a seventh straight week, obtaining $11.73 billion.
Global inflation-protected bond funds lured a net $1.4 billion, the largest in five weeks.
Among commodity funds, precious metal funds faced outflows worth $116 million after seeing inflows in the previous week, as gold prices dipped to a two-week low last week.
Energy funds also witnessed outflows for a fourth successive week.
An analysis of 23,907 emerging market funds showed bond funds attracted $1.21 billion and equity funds received a net $973 million, each marking a second weekly inflow.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Louise Heavens)
