BlackRock's global chief investment strategist said the company has “seen aggressive selling” out of equity funds and into bond funds as nervy investors have been switching allocations.

This was reflected in global exchange-traded fund flows for the start of this month, with equity ETFs seeing outflows of $20.3 billion during the week to February 7, while fixed income ETFs experienced inflows of $15.8 billion, according to Deutsche Bank's weekly ETF report.