Nov 5 (Reuters) - Global bond funds drew massive inflows in the week to Nov. 3 as investors reassessed expectations around the future course for key policy rate hikes ahead of major central bank meetings.
Investors purchased a net $13.79 billion in global bond funds, marking their largest net buying since the week to Sept. 1, Lipper data showed.
The U.S. central bank on Wednesday announced the tapering of its monthly $120 billion purchases in debt securities by $15 billion a month and restated that current high inflation is "expected to be transitory". Meanwhile the Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated that more job growth was needed before the central bank raised interest rates.
The U.S. 2-year Treasury yield dipped more than 10 basis points since hitting a 19-month peak last week.
"In a tussle between central banks and market pricing, the latter seems to be in question" Mizuho Bank said in a note.
U.S. bond funds drew a net $8.1 billion, European funds attracted $5.23 billion, while Asian funds received $0.36 billion.
Global short- and medium-term bond funds secured $1.72 billion in net buying after facing outflow in the previous week. Inflation protected funds attracted a net $1.98 billion, and government bond funds drew $2.35 billion.
Global equity funds pulled in $9.03 billion, marking a fifth successive week of inflow.
Chinese equity funds attracted purchases of $1.05 billion, their largest weekly inflow in five months, while Japanese funds faced outflows of $1.32 billion after two straight weeks of inflows.
Among sector funds, technology and healthcare funds attracted inflows of over $1 billion each, while consumer discretionary and industrials both saw about $0.25 billion in outflows.
Meanwhile, global money market funds drew $28.53 billion in net buying, marking a third weekly inflow.
Among commodity funds, precious metals funds faced a sixth weekly outflow of $606 million, while energy funds saw marginal inflows of $23 million.
An analysis of 23,878 emerging market funds showed investors purchased $1.79 billions of equity funds, and $413 million in bond funds, after six straight weeks of net selling.
Reporting by Gaurav Dogra in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama