LONDON  - Global bond funds had another week of huge inflows while outflows from equities slowed to a trickle, Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists said on Friday.

Investors ploughed $9.6 billion into bond funds, the 17th straight week of inflows as the market chases a bond rally driven by a dovish turn by central banks, while equity funds had a seventh week of outflows, though small at $300 million.

European equity funds have seen outflows in 58 of the past 60 weeks, with $4 billion outflows in the week to May 1, the strategists said, citing data from flow tracking specialist EPFR. U.S. equity funds had inflows of $2.2 billion.

Investors' search for high-yielding assets took them into emerging market debt funds which had their biggest inflows in 12 weeks, pulling in $2.4 billion.

(Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Thyagaraju Adinarayan) ((Helen.Reid@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 0402;))