LONDON (Reuters) - Emerging market bond funds chalked up their largest five-week inflow on record this week as the number of central bank rate cuts around the world since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 reached 666, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Merrill Lynch said on Friday.
The hunt for returns in a world of rapidly shrinking yields and interest rates intensified in the week to August 3 as investors poured $2.2 billion (1.6 billion pounds) into EM bond funds, bringing the total over the last five weeks up to $16.6 billion.
As interest rates and yields evaporate, investors are scrambling not only for the returns offered by emerging market bonds but also the safety from deepening economic uncertainty offered by higher quality government and corporate bonds.
Inflows into wider bond funds in the week reached $10.2 billion, the highest since February last year. That was largely driven by the $9.2 billion inflow into high-grade corporate bonds, the most in almost two years.
The central banks of Australia and the United Kingdom cut interest rates this week, bringing the total number of rate cuts since Lehman's September 2008 collapse to 666.
Since then, bond fund inflows have reached $1 trillion, far outstripping the $375 billion total inflow into equity funds over the period, BAML said.
"Extreme monetary policy is more positive for bonds than stocks," BAML's global strategy team led by Michael Hartnett in New York said in a note to clients on Friday.
Emerging market equities funds attracted a net $1.4 billion in the week to Aug. 3, marking the fifth straight week of inflow - the longest such run in almost two years.
But that wasn't enough to stem the broader tide of equity outflows, which totalled $4.6 billion globally, BAML said. So far this year, investors have pulled $139.3 billion out of equity funds, $134.6 billion of that coming out of developed markets.
Investors pulled a net $3.9 billion out of European equity funds, the 26th consecutive week of redemptions, and redeemed $3 billion form U.S. funds, the third consecutive weekly outflow.
Precious metals funds attracted a net $1.8 billion, marking the ninth inflow out of the past 10 weeks, BAML said.