Emerging market bond funds suffered disproportionately in past month

(Reuters) - Emerging market bond funds are performing poorly compared with their global peers as investors rush into the safety of cash and money markets to shield themselves from a further market erosion due to the cornavirus pandemic.

Refinitiv data showed emerging market bond funds have lost 16.7% of their market value on average over the past month, while the European and U.S. bond funds shed about 9% each.

(GRAPHIC: Global bond funds' returns - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/3830/3791/region.jpg)

Global investors sold $4.5 billion worth of emerging market bond funds in the week ended March 18, compared with an inflow of $210 million in the prior week, according to recent data from Lipper.

(GRAPHIC: EM flows - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/3831/3792/weekly%20flows%20into%20EM%20bond%20funds.jpg)

Brazil's bond funds were among the top 5 worst performing global funds over the past month, the data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Worst performers - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/3833/3794/worst%20performing.jpg)

Brazil's Caixa FMP FGTS Carteira Livre Renda Fixa 49 <LP68018635>, Santander PB Negroocho Acoes FI <LP68579992> and VIC Safari FICFI Multimercado Credito Privado IE<LP68534155> have shed more than 40% each over the past month, the data showed.

Among the top global bond funds by asset size, PIMCO Income fund <LP40114576> lost 12.78% over the past month, while Dodge & Cox Income fund <LP40005160> dropped 7.26%.

(GRAPHIC: Worst performers among top funds by assets - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/3834/3795/top%20funds.jpg)

(Reporting By Patturaja Murugaboopathy; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Raju Gopalakrishnan)