Global equity fund inflows surge to three week highs

July 31 (Reuters) - Global equity fund inflows rose to their highest in three weeks during the week to July 29, as investors snapped up technology sector funds during a market downturn, anticipating that the AI-driven advance has further to go.

Investors bought global equity funds worth a net $27.21 billion in their largest weekly net purchase since July 8, LSEG Lipper data showed.

Technology shares came under pressure after Alphabet and Tesla reported negative cash flows last week.

However, global stocks rose about 1.5% on Thursday, after strong results from Microsoft and Amazon eased investor concerns about heavy capital spending across the sector.

Investors poured $11.83 billion into U.S. equity funds during the week, reversing combined outflows of $10.68 billion over the previous two weeks.

European and Asian equity funds also attracted $7.79 billion and $5.37 billion, respectively in net inflows.

Investors poured $5.67 billion into technology-sector funds for their largest weekly net purchase since July 8. They also bought $2.1 billion in financial-sector funds and $766 million in consumer staples funds.

Inflows in global bond funds cooled to a 17-week low of $6.16 billion during the week.

High-yield bond funds saw outflows of $789 million, broadly reversing the $815 million in net purchases of the previous week.

Net weekly investments in government bond funds and short-term bond funds also slowed to $1.99 billion and $478 million, respectively, from $3.13 billion and $1.74 billion the prior week.

Money market funds stayed out of favor for a third consecutive week, posting net outflows of $6.55 billion.

Gold and other precious-metals funds attracted net inflows of $281 million, extending their winning streak to three weeks.

In emerging markets, investors added $1.75 billion to equity funds for a third straight week but withdrew roughly $800 million from bond funds, according to data covering 28,913 funds.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)