Bond buying flows surge as funds reverse reflation bets - BofA

[July 23, 2021]  LONDON (Reuters) - Global fund investors ploughed the most money into high quality bonds in nearly 5 months over the last week BofA analysts estimated on Friday, amid the ongoing unwind of the global reflation trade.

A nearly empty trading floor is seen at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 22, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

BofA's number crunchers who analyse weekly investment flow figures from EPFR said funds had bought $8.4 billion worth of bonds overall including $2.6 billion of U.S. government bonds.

The figures cover the week up to Wednesday and therefore the powerful rally in bond markets on Monday when the resurgence in global COVID cases seemed to suddenly ignite fears about the likelihood of economies being able to return to normal.

There had also been the largest withdrawal from U.S. stocks in 6 weeks at $2.6 billion and the largest outflow from European stocks and gold since March at $700 million and $1 billion respectively.

It hasn't been all gloom though. BofA estimated that funds have pumped $3.3 billion into stocks worldwide, although the fact $1.6 billion went into tech and $1.5 billion went into healthcare stocks again highlights the virus' impact.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Saikat Chatterjee)

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