Emerging markets stock funds see $1.64 bn outflows

Investors pulled out $1.64 billion from emerging markets equity funds last week for the first time in two months.

During the third week of May, emerging market equity funds lost $1.64 billion accounting for a major portion of a total outflow of $7.07 billion in global stock funds, according to the data complied by the international fund tracking firm EPFR.

This was the first time since third week of March that emerging market equity funds saw outflows on renewed concerns over Greek's debt and withdrawal of economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve on cards.

"Fresh speculation that Greek debt will be restructured and the fact that the official end to the US Federal Reserve's QE2 programme which is now less than eight weeks away," the report noted.

In contrast bond funds around the world took in a net $4.59 billion.

In Asia, uncertainty about the effect of tightening measures in China aimed at curbing inflation saw China equity funds post their biggest outflow since the second week of February while year-to-date redemptions for the region (excluding Japan equity funds) reached over $9 billion mark.

Besides, Russian equity funds were hurt mainly by lower oil prices while Brazil equity funds posted back-to-back inflows for the first time since early January.

However, the EPFR did not disclose specific inflow figures for India-focused funds. According to information available with Sebi, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pulled out $998 million from the Indian market during the period.

In terms of sector, commodity funds witnessed another setback during the period under review with investors taking the total redeemed over the past three weeks to nearly $5 billion.

Energy sector funds also suffered on "fresh evidence of demand destruction in the US, rising tax burdens on producers".

On year-to-date analysis, commodity sector funds are still the leaders when it comes to attracting fresh money, energy sector funds claimed the second place while financial sector funds have recorded the biggest outflow.