The week leading up to March 20 saw significant inflows into global equities funds, propelled by positive expectations on potential rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve later in the year as well as positive industrial and retail statistics from China.

LSEG data shows that following around $21.95 billion in net accumulation the week before, investors bought a net $15.7 billion worth of global equity funds over the week.

Following the Fed’s statement on Wednesday, which reaffirmed its stance on decreasing rates three times this year, the MSCI World Stock Index set a new record of 785.62.

In the region, U.S. funds led with inflows of $14.07 billion, the most since mid-June 2023; Asian funds gained $3.29 billion, while European funds experienced withdrawals of $1.91 billion.

The financial sector had sales of $1.02 billion during the week, while the IT sector funds saw inflows of $2.12 billion, the largest sum since February 14. The mining and metals industry brought in $459 million.

With $4.88 billion inflows, bond funds continued their 13-week winning streak. $3.17 billion went into corporate bonds, and $1.3 billion went into government bonds. Nonetheless, there were $2.12 billion in net withdrawals from short-term bonds worldwide.

Meanwhile, outflows from money market funds were roughly $65.9 billion, marking the first net weekly selling in the previous four weeks.

Precious metal funds snapped a seven-week selling streak in commodities with a record-breaking $1.46 billion in net purchases, the most since May 2022. On the other hand, $102 million was taken out of energy funds.

For the second straight day, Wall Street’s three main stock indexes closed at all-time highs on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve’s reassurance to investors over the likelihood of rate decreases this year.

Based on data including 29,715 emerging market funds, equities funds had $450 million in withdrawals, signifying their third consecutive week of net selling. Additionally, bond funds had $933 million in net sales compared to roughly $454 million in net purchases one week prior.

(Adapted from MarketScreener.com)