(Reuters) - Global equity funds witnessed their largest inflow in 12 weeks, as stocks surged on expectations that subdued U.S. inflation data would prompt the Federal Reserve to pause rate hikes for now.
As anticipated, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, breaking a streak of 10 consecutive rate hikes.
In the week ended June 14, investors added a net $16.18 billion to global equity funds, nearly offsetting the $17.69 billion in net selling observed just a week earlier, according to data from Refinitiv Lipper.
Investors allocated $18.85 billion to U.S. equity funds and $723 million to Asian equity funds. Conversely, European funds experienced a third consecutive weekly outflow, amounting to approximately $3.43 billion.
The technology sector attracted approximately $1.7 billion, marking the largest weekly inflow since March 2022. Consumer discretionary and financial sectors also saw inflows, amounting to $584 million and $386 million, respectively.
The MSCI's global index of stocks extended its climb into a third consecutive week and reached a 14-month high on Friday.
Meanwhile, money market funds experienced outflows of $33.52 billion after seven consecutive weeks of inflows.
In the global bond funds category, approximately $7.54 billion in capital flowed in, extending the streak of net purchases to 13 successive weeks.
Investors added $1.98 billion to global government bond funds, $1.35 billion to corporate bond funds, and $736 million to high yield bond funds.
Among commodity funds, precious metal funds faced a third consecutive week of net selling, totalling about $343 million. Energy funds, on the other hand, received inflows worth $35 million after experiencing outflows of $56 million in the previous week.
Data for 24,003 emerging market funds revealed that equity funds secured an inflow of $212 million after three consecutive weeks of outflows. Bond funds also received approximately $19 million, marking a second successive week of inflows.