May 15 (Reuters) – U.S. equity fund inflows surged to a three-week high in the week to May 13 on optimism over a strong earnings season and robust revenue guidelines by chipmakers, despite a buildup in inflationary pressure.
According to LSEG Lipper data, investors pumped up a net $22.37 billion into U.S. equity funds in their largest weekly net purchase since $27.97 billion of inflows in the week to April 22.
Strong sales forecasts by chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Microchip Technology last week bolstered investor sentiments and pushed the S&P 500 to a record high of 7,517.12 on Thursday.
LSEG data covering 455 S&P 500 constituents showed about 83% of companies beat analysts’ average profit estimates for the first quarter.
Inflows to U.S. large-cap funds of $17.06 billion were the largest in six weeks. Mid-cap and small-cap funds, however, had net outflows of $1.25 billion and $2.53 billion, respectively.
The technology sector gained record weekly net investments of $8.51 billion, while financials faced an outflow of $1.37 billion.
Bond fund inflows surged to a three-month high of $12.9 billion in the week.
U.S. short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds, general domestic taxable fixed income funds and, short-to-intermediate government and treasury funds segments drew significant net investments of $4.02 billion, $3.08 billion and $2.14 billion, respectively.
At the same time, investors divested a net $4.4 billion of money market funds after their $113.53 billion net purchase a week ago.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
