LIVE MARKETS-BofA clients net sellers for first time post-election

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BOFA CLIENTS NET SELLERS FOR FIRST TIME POST-ELECTION

BofA Securities equity and quant strategist Jill Carey Hall says that last week, with the S&P 500 index .SPX rallying 1.7%, clients were net sellers of U.S. equities (-$1.8B) for the first time since the week prior to the U.S. election (11-week net buying streak has ended).

Similar to the prior two weeks, clients sold ETFs and bought single stocks, though this time, ETF outflows ran ahead of single stock buying.

"Institutional and hedge fund clients were net sellers for a second and eighth consecutive week, respectively. These groups are typically net sellers in Jan. (vs. private clients typically buyers), and sales by both groups have also been larger than what we typically see in Jan," writes Hall in her note.

She adds "Private clients were net buyers for the 7th straight week, with MTD inflows as a % of mkt. cap already 5x larger than the typical full month of Jan."

Hall says that corporate client buybacks slowed week-over-week, but are tracking slightly above typical seasonal levels.

In terms of S&P 500 groups, Hall says clients sold six of the 11 GICS sectors, led by staples (fourth-largest weekly outflow in BofA's data history since '08, driven by record institutional client outflows) and consumer discretionary.

Clients continued to snap up healthcare, which saw the largest inflows of the sectors. Energy saw the next-largest inflows.

As for ETFs, Hall noted clients sold value/growth/blend ETFs and large/small/mid/broad market ETFs.

Six of the 11 sectors saw ETF outflows, led by energy and tech ETFs. Staples and healthcare ETFs saw the biggest inflows despite robust single stock outflows.

(Terence Gabriel)

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