April 17 (Reuters) – U.S. equity funds attracted strong demand in the week through April 15 as expectations of an early resolution to the Iran conflict and resilient corporate results boosted risk appetite.
Investors poured a net $21.25 billion into U.S. equity funds, extending a buying streak to a fourth straight week, LSEG Lipper data showed.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes posted their second consecutive record closing highs on Thursday as Israel agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Lebanon and U.S. President Donald Trump signaled that Washington and Tehran could meet again over the weekend.
Inflows into U.S. large-cap funds jumped to a net $7.58 billion in the week, from roughly $662 million the week before. Small-cap funds drew a net $284 million in investments, while mid-cap funds faced divestments of $389 million.
Sectoral funds were the most popular in over four years, attracting a net of $7.39 billion in weekly inflows. The tech, industrial and healthcare sectors garnered net purchases of $5.63 billion, $897 million and $694 million, respectively, and led net buying.
Bond funds were on the sidelines as investors withdrew $833 million on a net basis, after receiving a net $9.59 billion the prior week.
Short-to-intermediate government and treasury funds suffered weekly net sales of $5.42 billion as investors ended 14 weeks of inflows. General domestic taxable fixed-income funds, however, attracted $2.33 billion, the biggest weekly amount since February 18.
U.S. investors dumped a net $177.72 billion of money market funds in the largest weekly selloff since at least September 2018.
(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
