Global equity fund inflows hit three-week high before late selloff

Aug 21 (Reuters) - Global equity funds ‌drew their largest ​weekly ​inflows in three weeks through August 19 as investors bet on a strong earnings season, though rising bond yields and oil prices began ‌to weigh on markets.

The fund-flow data preceded a broad late-week selloff. ⁠Global stocks were on track for their steepest weekly decline since mid-July on Friday as higher ‌government bond yields, elevated oil ‌prices and renewed inflation concerns pressured equity valuations.

Global equity funds drew net inflows of $22.01 billion during the week, their biggest weekly gain since July 29, according ​to LSEG Lipper data.

Investors remained upbeat about the strong earnings season, as roughly 90% of MSCI World companies had reported second-quarter results, with combined net income ⁠rising 39.7% from a year earlier, LSEG data showed.

Anthropic projected strong revenue growth earlier this week. Investors are ​now awaiting Nvidia's results next week for clues on demand for AI infrastructure and data-center revenue.

By region, U.S. equity funds attracted $11.72 ​billion, their largest weekly inflow since July 29. ‌European and Asian equity funds also saw net purchases of $4.70 billion and $2.96 billion, respectively.

Among sectoral funds, technology funds attracted $1.55 billion in ⁠inflows after a week of net outflows. Investors also bought $536 million in gold and precious-metals equity funds but sold $1.59 billion of financial-sector funds.

Meanwhile, investors extended net purchases of bond funds for ⁠a 20th consecutive week, adding a net $15.42 billion.

They bought a net $4.49 billion of hard-currency bond ​funds, their largest weekly purchase since July 8. Short-term and government bond funds also saw notable inflows of $3.32 billion and $1.99 billion, respectively.

Weekly net inflows in money market funds stood at $3.71 billion, ‌a three-week low.

In commodities, gold and other precious-metals funds attracted $2.04 billion, extending their inflow streak to six weeks. Energy funds, however, ‌posted $146 million in outflows after drawing $434 million the previous week.

Data on 28,980 emerging-market funds showed ⁠equity funds remained in demand ‌for a sixth straight week, ​attracting $1.57 billion in inflows. Bond funds also drew a net $493 million, marking a third consecutive weekly inflow.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by ‌Andrew Heavens)

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