Stock funds worldwide attract $8.2 billion inflow - BofA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fund investors worldwide poured $8.2 billion of new cash into stock funds in the week ended February 26, marking the third straight week of inflows into the funds, data from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report showed on Friday.

Emerging market stock funds posted outflows of $3 billion in the weekly period ended Wednesday, extending the funds' outflow streak to 18 weeks and bringing outflows from the funds this year to $25.6 billion, according to the report, which also cited data from fund-tracker EPFR Global.

Bond funds worldwide attracted $2.9 billion in new cash, marking their fourth straight week of inflows. Emerging market bond funds posted outflows of $1.8 billion, marking 22 straight weeks of outflows and their longest outflow streak on record.

Riskier high-yield bond funds attracted $2.1 billion of the total inflows into bond funds, marking their third straight week of new cash.

Commodities funds, which mainly hold physical gold, attracted $900 million in new money, marking their first inflows in 16 weeks. Most of the cash flowed into gold and silver exchange-traded funds, the report said.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)