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Investing.com -- Institutional and retail investors stepped in to buy U.S. equities last week after a month of selling, according to new data from Bank of America.
BofA said in a note this week that clients were “net buyers of the dip in U.S. equities after selling for 4 weeks,” as the S&P 500 fell 2.4%.
Inflows into single stocks totaled $4.1 billion, the fifth-highest since 2008, while equity ETFs saw small outflows of $200 million.
The bank noted that “institutional clients led the buying,” marking the “biggest weekly inflow since November 2022,” with retail clients also returning as buyers after selling in four of the prior five weeks.
Hedge funds, however, “continued to sell U.S. equities for a fifth straight week.”
Inflows were said to have been broad-based, with BofA reporting that clients bought stocks across all 11 sectors, led by Communication Services, Health Care, and Energy.
The bank highlighted that Energy saw its biggest inflows since March 2023. Meanwhile, institutional investors were also “big buyers of Tech the last few weeks ahead of 3Q earnings,” where the sector is expected to drive 20% year-over-year profit growth compared with 3% for the rest of the S&P 500.
While overall ETF flows turned negative, investors reportedly favoured small-cap and value-focused funds.
“Clients sold equity ETFs for a second week,” BofA said, but added that there were “bigger inflows in Value” and renewed demand for small-cap ETFs.