Africa equity funds end 44-week inflow streak

A 44-week streak of inflows to funds investing in emerging and frontier equities in Africa has ended while inflows to South Africa have risen, fund tracker EPFR Global said.

EPFR Global had recorded net inflows of over $480m to African regional funds in the first half of the year, an indication of investor appetite for the fast-growing continent.

But the fund tracker said that the long stretch of inflows ended in the week ending July 14.

“Flows into (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Equity Funds were, for once, not driven by investor interest in the commodities story of Russia and Africa, with Africa Regional Equity Funds seeing their 44-week inflow streak come to an end,” it said.

“The focus shifted to South Africa and Turkey. South Africa Equity Funds had their best week since early April while Turkey Equity Funds attracted $26m, a 13-week high.”

It gave no figures for net flows to Africa or South Africa.