US equity funds record biggest weekly outflow in five weeks

(Reuters) - U.S. equity funds saw substantial outflows in the week to Oct. 30 as investors exercised caution ahead of Tuesday's presidential election and a Federal Reserve policy decision on Wednesday.

According to LSEG data, investors divested a net $5.83 billion worth of U.S. equity funds during the week, the most since the seven days to Sept. 25.

Investors ditched U.S. growth funds worth a net $4.06 billion in the largest weekly selloff since Oct. 2. Value funds also saw $2.19 billion of net outflows.

The industrial, gold and precious metals, and healthcare sectors suffered net outflows amounting to $779 million, $392 million and $278 million, respectively. The consumer discretionary sector attracted $478 million worth of net inflows.

Investors snapped up U.S. bond funds for a 22nd week in a row, to the tune of $7.37 billion.

They pumped $3.18 billion into U.S. short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds, the biggest amount in four weeks. General domestic taxable fixed income, and municipal debt funds also attracted a net $2.9 billion and $659 million, respectively.

A net $5.7 billion worth of U.S. money market funds was sold in the period, following about $30 billion worth of net purchases in the previous week.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)