Investors have pulled more than $1 billion a day out of equities funds in the past five weeks, the largest redemptions since the summer of 2011, as fears over a faltering global economy weigh on markets.

In the week ending May 11 alone, $7.4 billion was pulled out of stockmarket funds, according to data released on May 13 by EPFR Global, which tracks mutual fund flows worldwide. Strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch called it an "equity exodus".