US equity funds draw biggest weekly inflow in nine months

(Reuters) - U.S. equity funds witnessed robust demand in the seven days to March 20, buoyed by Wall Street's continued rally and expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts later this year.

According to LSEG data, investors acquired a net $14.07 billion worth of U.S. equity funds during the week, logging their largest net weekly purchase since mid-June 2023.

The S&P 500 index hit a new record of 5,261.1 this week after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday indicated that it still expects to cut U.S. interest rates three times this year despite recent high inflation readings.

U.S. large cap funds in particular, attracted a significant $15.31 billion, the largest amount since March 22, 2023. Investors, however, shed US multi-, small-, and mid-cap funds of $676 million, $648 million and $481 million, respectively.

Tech, metals and mining, and real-estate sector funds led sectoral inflows, receiving $766 million, $463 million and $333 million, respectively on a net basis. The financial sector still faced $1.07 billion worth of net selling.

U.S. investors, meanwhile, shed $1.44 billion worth of bond funds, snapping their 12-weeks-long buying streak.

They sold U.S. high yield, and short/intermediate government & treasury funds of a net $2.02 billion and $1.99 billion respectively, but still acquired short/intermediate investment-grade funds of about $1.38 billion.

Inflows to U.S. bond funds slowed sharply to a net $3.81 billion from $10.54 billion in the prior week.

Concurrently, money market funds posted a net $65.79 billion worth of outflow, the biggest amount since mid-October 2023.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)