Bank of America Securities said that last week its clients were net sellers of US equities for the second consecutive week, with outflows totaling $3.1 billion.
Excluding untagged flows, the bank’s clients were net buyers of single stocks and equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with ETF inflows observed across most sectors, sizes, and styles.
Hedge funds were the primary sellers, marking their third straight week of selling, while private and institutional clients were net buyers for the fifth and first time in five weeks, respectively. Large and mid-cap stocks saw inflows for the fourth consecutive week, whereas small caps experienced outflows for the first time in five weeks, BofA noted.
Corporate client buybacks by BofA accelerated, recording the fifth-largest week in history since 2010, and have been above typical seasonal levels as a percentage of the S&P 500 market cap for the last 16 weeks.
“While this report does not include sector-level granularity on executed buybacks, announced S&P 500 buybacks YTD have been dominated by Tech/Comm. Svcs,” BofA strategists highlighted.
Clients purchased stocks in five of the eleven sectors, with Technology seeing inflows for the fourth consecutive week. Communication Services continues to have the longest buying streak at 13 weeks, while Consumer Discretionary saw the largest outflows. After experiencing outflows for most weeks this year, Real Estate stocks have seen inflows for the last four weeks.
“Clients bought ETFs in six of 11 sectors, led by Financials. Tech ETFs saw the largest outflows,” the report states.