The first week of October saw China’s benchmark stock index do a passable imitation of a roller coaster. It was a different story for flows into dedicated China Equity Funds whose rocket-like trajectory carried these funds and the broader Emerging Markets Equity Fund group into record territory.
Investors anticipating that recent interest rate cuts in North America and Europe will drive a rotation from bonds to stocks, especially emerging markets stocks, were partially vindicated in late September when EPFR-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds posted their second-largest weekly inflow of the year.
In the wake of the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut in over four years, US equity markets hit fresh record highs and collective flows into US-mandated Equity, Bond and Money Market Funds tracked by EPFR totaled over $160 billion. The bulk of that fresh money, however, was absorbed by US Money Market Funds.