The Smart Money Is Starting to Pour Into Energy Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- Institutional investors are starting to take a shine to energy.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch's clients poured $212 million into energy equities, primarily mid-caps, for the week ending July 24.

The increase was wholly attributable to institutional investors, as hedge funds and private clients were net sellers of the space.

This group, which is comprised of mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, banks, broker dealers and others, has put money to work in energy stocks for five consecutive weeks. The last time Bank of America's institutional clients bought energy for this long, they were trying to catch a falling knife -- and it didn't work out too well.

“This is the longest Energy buying streak by institutional clients since August 2014 (when this group bought the dip as Energy first pulled back over 5 percent from its highs),” equity and quant strategist Jill Carey Hall wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Luke Kawa in New York at lkawa@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Randall Jensen