LIVE MARKETS-Despite the tortoise outrunning the hare, BofA clients not on board

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DESPITE THE TORTOISE OUTRUNNING THE HARE, BOFA CLIENTS NOT ON BOARD

BofA Securities equity and quant strategist Jill Carey Hall says that last week, with the S&P 500 index .SPX rallying nearly 6%, clients were just small net buyers of U.S. equities ($0.2 billion) after being big dip-buyers the prior week.

Clients sold single stocks, but snapped up ETFs.

"Private clients were sole net buyers, while institutional and hedge fund clients returned to selling after buying the week before. Private clients - who have been buyers for 18 weeks straight (longest start-of-year buying streak in our data history, since '08) - had their third-largest inflow on record, while net sales by institutional clients were the third-largest in history," writes Hall in her note.

She adds that corporate client buybacks slowed, but are tracking above typical seasonal levels for a second-straight week.

Hall says that clients sold stocks in seven of the 11 GICS sectors, led by the two consumer groups, while tech and communication services saw the biggest inflows.

She notes that since the sell-off began, clients have been the most persistent net buyers of materials (inflows for the last seven weeks) and healthcare (inflows for the last five weeks).

And "despite recession/stagflation concerns, utilities (the 'tortoise' - which has outperformed the Nasdaq ('hare') YTD, has seen the most persistent outflows (sales in nine of the last 10 weeks, with rolling 4-wk. avg. flows the most negative in 5½ years)."

As for ETFs, clients, for the second week, bought ETFs across all sizes and styles except growth ETFs.

Most sectors saw ETF inflows, with tech, discretionary, energy, and materials ETFs out front.

Healthcare ETFs had the biggest outflows.

(Terence Gabriel)

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