$1 billion pulled from U.K. equity funds in single week as ‘Brexit’-wary investors vote with feet

European equity funds see 19 straight weeks of outflows

 

While Brexit supporters and opponents re-enacted naval battles on the River Thames, investors withdrew more than $1 billion from U.K. equity funds.
The $1.1 billion outflow last week was the second largest weekly outflow over the past 10 years, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in its weekly “Flow Show” note on Friday (see chart above).
Read: This is why Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon think the ‘Brexit’ vote matters to each os us

So far, June has seen a massive risk-off Brexit trade, with investors flocking to gold GCQ6, +0.25% U.S. bonds TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.00% and the Japanese yen USDJPY, -0.09% while selling oil CLN6, +4.44% U.K. and European equities UKX, +1.19% SXXP, +1.40%  and the British pound GBPUSD, +1.1055% the note said.
U.K. citizens will head to the polls on June 23 to decide whether to leave the European Union.
Read: Everything you need to know about the Brexit referendum
London’s FTSE 100 stock index rose 1.2% Friday after both sides in the Brexit campaign suspended activity for a second day in the wake of the fatal shooting of a anti-Brexit British lawmaker, an event analysts said could bolster support for the “remain” camp. The index, however, still saw a 1.6% weekly decline and is off 3.4% since the end of May.
See: ‘Pause for reflection’ in Brexit—analysts assess market impact of Cox tragedy
European equity funds continued to see withdrawals, with investors shifting $4.7 billion out last week, marking the 19th straight week of outflows.
Investors also sold high-yield bonds ($3.2 billion) and emerging market equities ($1.9 billion), while piling money into investment grade corporate bonds ($0.8 billion).
Precious metal funds saw $1.1 billion inflows, sending price of gold to highest levels in 18 months.