(Reuters) – Global equity funds witnessed their first weekly outflow in five as a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report raised concerns that the Federal Reserve would keep policy rates higher for longer than anticipated. Refinitiv Lipper data showed investors withdrew about $209 million from global equity funds in the week to Feb. 8, marking their first weekly net selling since Jan. 4.
GRAPHIC: Fund flows: Global equities bonds and money market (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/lbpggbymjpq/Fund%20flows-%20Global%20equities%20bonds%20and%20money%20market.jpg)
The dollar index gained about 1.1% last week, with the stellar January U.S. payrolls report prompting investors to price in the risk of more hikes from the Fed. U.S. equity funds recorded outflows of $470 million, although investors purchased European and Asian funds of about $100 million each. According to the data, healthcare, consumer staples and energy sectors faced outflows worth a net $1.23 billion, $501 million and $306 million, respectively, while financials received about $952 million in inflows.
GRAPHIC: Fund flows: Global equity sector funds (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/lgpdkngqxvo/Fund%20flows-%20Global%20equity%20sector%20funds.jpg)
Meanwhile, investors remained net buyers in bond funds for a sixth week, but the buying dipped to $4.52 billion, the smallest amount since Dec. 28. Global short- and medium-term bond funds remained in demand for a third week as they received a net $2.38 billion. Still, investors exited $2.27 billion worth of government bond funds, marking their biggest weekly net selling since at least March 2021.
GRAPHIC: Global bond fund flows in the week ended Feb 8 (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/klvygdljjvg/Global%20bond%20fund%20flows%20in%20the%20week%20ended%20Feb%208.jpg)
Global money market funds recorded outflows of $4.47 billion compared with the previous week’s $1.12 billion net purchases. Among commodity funds, investors poured $447 million into energy funds in a second straight week of net buying, while precious metal funds obtained a net $100 million after witnessing a weekly outflow. Data for 24,697 emerging market (EM) funds showed equity funds secured a net $2.74 billion in a fifth successive week of net buying, while bond funds obtained a net $1.3 billion worth of inflows.
GRAPHIC: Fund flows: EM equities and bonds (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/egvbyaebqpq/Fund%20flows-%20EM%20equities%20and%20bonds.jpg)
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
