Investing.com -- Long-only investors shifted decisively toward non-U.S. equities in February, according to a new note from Bank of America.

Quant strategist Nigel Tupper wrote that “long-only funds globally bought non-US stocks but sold US stocks,” marking a clear divergence in regional positioning.

BofA noted that combined active and passive funds recorded their largest inflows into Emerging Markets, purchasing over $17.6 billion, followed by Asia Pac at over $14.9 billion.

In contrast, the biggest outflows were in the United States, where funds sold $69.5 billion in shares.

By sector, the strongest buying occurred in Consumer Staples at more than $7.9 billion and Materials at over $5 billion, while Software and Media saw heavy selling of $17.7 billion and $11 billion, respectively.

The note said the world’s largest long-only stock purchases last month included Walmart, AbbVie, Roche and ASML, while major sales included AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Apple and NVIDIA.

BofA highlighted that the most widely held stocks globally by long-only funds remain TSMC at 92 percent ownership, followed by ARM at 88 percent, Microsoft at 84 percent, NVIDIA at 74 percent and Tencent at 72 percent.

The bank also said “Crowded Positives,” which are names combining high ownership and positive “Triple Momentum”, continue to outperform.

These currently include Broadcom, TSMC, Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, SK Hynix and Eli Lilly.