Business Corpus: Biotech Funds Tack On $510 Million As Inflows Hit Eight-Week StreakBiotech funds saw $510 million in net inflows this week, as assets increased for the eighth week running, an analyst said Friday. For the week ended Wednesday, biotech fund assets increased by 0.63%, The post Biotech Funds Tack On $510 Million As Inflows Hit Eight-Week Streak appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Biotech funds saw $510 million in net inflows this week, as assets increased for the eighth week running, an analyst said Friday.

For the week ended Wednesday, biotech fund assets increased by 0.63%, Raymond James analyst Laura Chico said in a report to clients. Chico summarized data generated by Lipper/AMG Data Services, which represents 98 funds and about $83 billion in assets.

Over the same week, biotech stocks saw a 3.1% increase. On the stock market today, shares of the 504-company biotech industry group lifted a fraction. The group has closed in the black for six days running.

As of Friday, some of the best performers for the week included Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Immunomedics (IMMU) and Omeros (OMER) stocks. Each was up by double-digits week over week as of Friday.

"We continue to see biotech sector performance being influenced by several drivers: data readouts, commercial execution, M&A potential and capital markets accessibility," Chico said. "Biotech fund flows — including ETF activity — remain a driver to watch."

Biotech Inflows Stay Positive

Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Raymond noted biotech funds have reported inflows for 13 out of the past 14 weeks. Over that time, net inflows have exceeded $4 billion. Including this week, net year-to-date biotech inflows stand at $1.6 billion, he said.

"This is a key dynamic to monitor as periods of net inflows historically correspond with biotech outperformance while periods of net outflows correspond with sector underperformance," Raymond said in his note to clients.

Said Chico: "Biotech exchange traded fund activity also improved as a percentage of total net assets."

For the week, ETF activity climbed 7 basis points to represent 63.4% of total net assets.

"Historically, there have been few periods in which this metric has fallen over a sustained duration, but periods of contraction have correlated with declines in the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI)," she said.

Excluding ETF activity, biotech inflows still increased for the eighth straight week. This gives "a glimpse into net investor sentiment," Chico said. This is now the longest stretch of inflows since 2015.

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