Institutional money shifted hard into energy last week as oil volatility spiked. ETFs tracking the sector grabbed $219M in fresh flows. Flow imbalance hit 88% showing dominant buying pressure. The move reversed three-month trends where energy absorbed just $18.5B against industrials' massive $23B haul.
The U.S. pulled $4.1B in one week alone. That represented 100% relative flow strength as all other regions paled by comparison. South Korea added $472M with 80.7% imbalance. Taiwan captured $449M showing continued Asia ex-China momentum.
Hong Kong bled $629M as mainland exposure fears persisted. The region posted just 0.3% flow imbalance indicating near-total selling. India shed $177M while Israel lost $184M. Both regions hit sub-10% imbalance scores signaling coordinated exits.
China's three-month picture told a different story. The region hemorrhaged $98.7B over the quarter. That made it the single worst performer globally by a massive margin. Yet weekly data showed $97M in net inflows suggesting tentative stabilization attempts.
Tech grabbed $383M last week reversing brutal quarterly outflows. The sector lost $5.1B over three months as investors fled AI hype. One-week flows showed 59.2% imbalance indicating buyers finally returned.
Consumer staples added $107M with 93.2% imbalance. Utilities pulled $38M at 74.8% showing defensive positioning. Financials dumped $95M as bank exposure fell. Materials lost $35M despite commodity volatility.
Healthcare suffered the sharpest reversal. The sector bled $109M last week at just 11.1% flow imbalance. Three-month data showed $815M in outflows. Industrials dominated the quarter at $23B yet added just $3M last week suggesting exhaustion.
Equities commanded $4.4B weekly with 61.5% imbalance. Fixed income grabbed $1.7B at 65.5% showing parallel strength. Commodities surged $669M on oil chaos with 83.5% imbalance reflecting conviction buying.
Active strategies pulled $890M at 80.3% imbalance. Vanilla grabbed $3.3B. Dividend funds added $259M with 97.6% imbalance as investors chased yield. Value dumped $402M reversing three-month gains of $8.8B. ESG strategies bled $116M extending quarterly outflows past $6B.
Risk-on sentiment dominated despite geopolitical chaos. Energy and commodity flows signaled inflation hedging over defensive positioning.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
