Global markets in "unambiguous contrarian buy territory" - BofA

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - The trillions wiped off global markets in recent weeks has triggered a contrarian ‘buy’ signal from BofA’s closely-followed ‘Bull & Bear’ sentiment indicator, while emerging markets are seeing their toughest time since the peak of the COVID crash.

Fears that inflation and fast-rising rates will send major economies into recession have sent global markets in a downward spiral with global equities (.MIWO00000PUS) losing close to 18% since the beginning of the year. It is the worst start to a year on recent record.

BofA’s analysts said their ‘Bull & Bear’ indicator had now moved into “unambiguous contrarian buy territory”, given the huge redemptions in developed market stocks, riskier high-yield debt and emerging market bonds.

The week saw the largest ouflows from emerging markets debt since March 2020 and the biggest withdrawals from high yield bonds in 14 weeks, at $6.1 billion and $4.3 billion respectively BofA noted, citing EPFR data.

Across the equity space, Europe, which is being hit hardest by the Russia-Ukraine war, suffered a fourteenth week of withdrawals.

All in all, $5.2 billion exited world equities funds, while a seventh week of outflows from global bond funds saw $12.3 billion leave.