Investing.com -- Global long-only funds continued to rotate out of U.S. equities and into international markets in March, with the trend now deepening into the second quarter, according to a Bank of America research note published Tuesday.

In March alone, long-only funds sold $15.4 billion worth of U.S. shares while buying $16.7 billion in Europe and $9.8 billion in Japan. Emerging markets and Asia Pacific ex-Japan also attracted inflows of $4.8 billion and $4.7 billion, respectively.

Over the past 12 months, funds have sold a net $284 billion in U.S. stocks while buying $119 billion in Asia Pacific ex-Japan and $71.7 billion in emerging markets.

The trend reflects a broader repositioning in active fund management. Active long-only funds sold shares in most regions during March — Japan being the exception — while passive funds bought across the board.

Year-to-date, U.S. outflows have reached $131 billion, dwarfing flows into every other region.

By sector, funds bought most heavily into Healthcare in March, $17.9 billion and $16.1 billion, respectively, while continuing to offload Software and Diversified Financials, with outflows totaling $27.8 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively.

At the stock level, the month’s largest purchases included AstraZeneca, Exxon Mobil, Waters Corp, Alphabet, Johnson & Johnson, Vertiv, Roche, RTX, and Kioxia.

Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, JPMorgan Chase, and NVIDIA were among the most sold. Over the past year, the single biggest seller has been Meta, with $37.3 billion in cumulative outflows.

Among eight global investment themes the bank tracks, Gold and Rare Earths have attracted the most buying over the past 12 months, while Artificial Intelligence has seen the steepest outflows at -$93.3 billion, followed by Quantum Computing at -$41.6 billion.

On positioning trends, BofA said active funds remain most overweight Europe and most underweight the U.S.

“In the last three months, funds have cut exposure the most to USA,” the note says.

For stock selection, BofA’s "Crowded Positives" screen — which identifies heavily owned, overweight stocks with strong earnings, price, and news momentum — currently flags Broadcom, TSMC, SK Hynix, ASML, CATL-A, and UniCredit.

On the flip side, its "Under-owned Negatives" screen highlights Coinbase Global, Blackstone, JD.com, Datadog, Mercedes-Benz, and Saudi Arabian Oil as stocks where weak momentum meets low fund ownership.