Both developing and emerging markets witness outflows in Equity funds

Fund flow data for the week ended 25 March showed lackluster flows after the FOMC meeting, according to Standard Chartered research notes.

• Institutional investors continue to drive flows across asset classes as retail investors remain sidelined. 
• European risk assets, both equity and high-yield (HY) funds, remained the bright spots, receiving consistent inflows as quantitative easing continued to support risk sentiment in the region. 
• Flows into US risk assets were mixed, with US equity funds witnessing large outflows from both institutional and retail investors, while US HY funds received moderate inflows from institutional investors. 
• Developed-market (DM) bond funds received modest inflows during the week, driven primarily by institutional accounts. 
• Emerging-market (EM) bond funds saw very small inflows; investors maintained their preference for hard-currency (HC) over local-currency (LC) funds, though the picture may change in the coming weeks with the recent post-FOMC weakness in the USD. 
• Outflows from EM bond funds were driven largely by retail investors.
• EM equity funds continued to see outflows in the week ended 25 March.
• AXJ-domiciled funds also witnessed outflows, led by China-domiciled funds.