Equity funds see biggest weekly inflows in a year: BAML

[March 15, 2019]   LONDON (Reuters) - Investors plowed $14.2 billion into global equity funds this week, the largest amount in a year as investors jumped on to 2019's stock market rally, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, citing flow data provider EPFR.

An index of global stocks is up more than 16 percent since the end of 2018 as falling market volatility and a renewed dovishness from global central banks, led by the U.S. Federal Reserve has boosted risk appetite across the board.

BAML said most of the inflows went into exchange traded funds while mutual funds saw net outflows.

U.S. equity funds were the biggest beneficiaries with net inflows of $25.5 billion while emerging markets saw net outflows.

European funds also saw $4.6 billion of outflows after the European Central Bank slashed its growth forecasts and signaled a cautious economic outlook at its latest policy meeting.

The appetite for risk spilled over into bond markets as well with investment grade debt notching up the eighth consecutive week of inflows.

(Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Tommy Wilkes)

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