In 'laggard rotation', emerging market equity funds turn winners: BofA

[September 11, 2020] By Thyagaraju Adinarayan

LONDON (Reuters) - Global investors yanked almost $24 billion out of cash funds in the past week to redirect money into emerging markets, while slowing down on chasing the summer's winners, technology and gold, BofA's weekly fund flow statistics showed on Friday.

BofA analysts, citing data for the week to Sept. 9 from financial flow tracking firm EPFR, said they saw a "laggard rotation" with year-to-date underperformers, such as emerging market stocks, attracting $3.4 billion, the largest in nine weeks.

The United States, Europe and Japan meanwhile all saw moderate outflows with Wall Street's growth stocks being dumped the most with $4.1 billion in outflows.

Wall Street's tech- and stimulus-led rally came to a screeching halt last week as investors booked profits after a run that boosted the tech-heavy Nasdaq index about 70% from its pandemic lows.

Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix - together known as "FAATMAN" - collectively lost more than $1 trillion in market capitalization between Sept. 2 and Sept. 8.

BofA said this month's fragility in stock markets was in part caused by a high concentration of tech stocks and the rising influence of retail investors, who grabbed the spotlight in recent months as markets have rallied in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 50% of the 7.2% return on the S&P 500 index in August was from just 10 tech stocks.

BofA however said it does not see a bear market coming, with the U.S. central bank "so easy" and Wall Street "flush with cash".

The bank suggests selling if the S&P 500 crosses 3,600 points. The index scaled 3,588 on Sept. 2 and has since lost nearly 7%.

Separately, Goldman Sachs said it had upped global equity allocations to "overweight" for the next three months after the recent pullback, citing an inflection in earnings growth and a catch-up by cyclical stocks, which had lagged the summer rally.

(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; editing by Sujata Rao and Andrew Heavens)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.