BofA analysts said in a note Tuesday that they see the "first sign of a stock pickers market since 2008."
The analysts, writing about recent BofA equity client flow trends, revealed that last week, during which the S&P 500 was -0.8%, clients were net buyers of U.S. equities (+$2.2 billion) for the third week.
"Clients bought single stocks vs sold ETFs, and equities across all three size segments saw inflows. YTD, single stocks have seen a cumulative $25B in inflows while ETFs have seen a cumulative $9B in outflows – the widest gap in our post-GFC history," the analysts stated.
However, they noted that "corporates (buybacks) were the only buyers last week," with institutional, hedge fund, and retail clients all sellers, led by retail, who have been sellers for the last six weeks. In addition, they said hedge funds sold equities for the first time in four weeks.
Meanwhile, they explained that while there were outflows from most sectors, Tech inflows continued, alongside Health Care and Industrials.
"Tech has seen the largest cumulative inflows YTD; meanwhile, Industrials has seen the biggest outflows YTD and Industrials inflows last week were the first in five weeks," explained the analysts.