LONDON Technology equity funds saw their biggest weekly inflows on record in the week to Wednesday, driven by a surge in investor interest in artificial intelligence, according to BofA Global Research released on Friday (June 2).

Tech stocks saw US$8.5 billion of inflows in the week to Wednesday, the most on record, BofA said, citing EPFR data. Stocks in general saw US$14.8 billion of inflows the largest weekly inflow since February.

Part of that swell was thanks to a 30% rise in shares of chipmaker Nvidia in just three sessions that pushed its market valuation above US$1 trillion at one point.

Seven stocks - Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla - account for 8.8 percentage points of the S&P 500's 10% year-to-date return, according to BofA's calcuations.

The "market (is) bored of waiting for rates to cause recession" and so is 'back to biggest companies = biggest margins = biggest (price to earnings multiples)'," the analysts wrote in a note, saying that they themselves remain bearish due to higher interest rates.

Cash funds, normally in demand when investors are nervous, also saw inflows of US$11.3 billion, their six straight week of inflows, while gold funds saw US$200 million of outflows, according to BofA.

  - Reuters