BofA Securities said Tuesday its clients’ inflows into individual stocks have surpassed those into ETFs for the fourth week in a row. Year-to-date cumulative inflows into stocks are three times that into ETFs, the bank’s strategists highlighted.
Despite being net sellers of equities last week overall, when excluding flows not categorized by client, size, or sector, clients have shown positive inflow for the fifth consecutive week.
“Institutional clients were net buyers (alongside corporates) for a fourth consecutive week, while hedge fund (HF) and retail clients were net sellers for the second week and sixth week, respectively,” analysts said.
Meanwhile, corporate client buybacks have surged to their third-highest weekly level on record (since 2010), surpassing usual seasonal trends for the second week in a row.
Since the start of 2024, buybacks represent 0.34% of the S&P 500's market capitalization, exceeding the peak of 0.29% seen at this point in 2023.
Moreover, the trailing 52-week buybacks as a percentage of market cap have reached their highest point since August 2020.