LONDON (Reuters) – A whopping $20 billion has left global equity funds, BofA said on Friday, as investors fled risky assets on concerns the fast-spreading coronavirus could trigger a global recession.
A sudden jump in coronavirus cases outside China this week raised pandemic fears that led to panic-selling across global stock markets.
Global equities, which have lost nearly $6 trillion in value this week alone, were on track for their worst weekly loss since 2008.
(Graphic – Value loss this week: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/buzzifr/15/7933/7933/Pasted%20Imag…)
Investors scrambled into bond funds, mainly investment grade, and they attracted $12.9 billion, BofA’s numbers for the week to Wednesday showed.
Junk bonds meanwhile saw the third biggest outflows ever of $6.9 billion as BofA saw the chances of credit defaults “surging”.
The bank said the risk of a global recession was rising and on Thursday cut its annual global growth forecast to the lowest since the 2008 financial crisis.
(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes)
