Investors poured money into global equity funds at a record pace so far this year while US funds saw plummeting inflows, in a striking reflection of the underperformance of Wall Street stocks compared to their foreign counterparts, according to data from TrimTabs Investment Research.

Inflows into global stock funds, which invest internationally as well as in the US, reached $79.9bn so far this year, a jump of 19.3 per cent over the $67bn for the whole of 2004. By contrast US-only funds attracted only $28bn in inflows so far this year, down 74.6 per cent from the $110.4bn that was invested in these funds in 2004.