UPDATE 1-Record inflows for emerging market bond funds-EPFR

* Emerging debt fund weekly inflows of $1.05 bln

* High yield debt funds weekly inflows of $1.19 bln (Updates with additional data)

By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - Investors plowed record amounts of cash into emerging market and high yield bond funds for the week ended March 10, fund tracker EPFR Global said on Thursday.

Emerging market debt funds took in a net $1.05 billion while high yield debt funds had inflows of $1.19 billion that week, their best performance since the firm started tracking these fund groups weekly, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based EPFR told Reuters.

The cash flowed into the funds "as expectations of lower default rates, the hunger for yield and the prospect of a resolution for Dubai World's debt woes helped to push the spread between U.S. Treasuries and JP Morgan's benchmark EMBI+ index to a 20-month low," said Cameron Brandt, global markets analyst at EPFR Global.

Year-to-date (YTD) inflows into Emerging Markets Bond Funds moved over the $5 billion mark on the back of their biggest weekly inflow in over a decade, the firm later said in a statement.

The EMBI+ 11EMJ.JPMEMBIPLUS yield spreads finished the week at 259.472 basis points and remained unchanged on Thursday.

Safe-haven money market mutual funds had outflows of $31.7 billion, the firm said. The outflows from these funds was "a positive sign," said David Spegel, global head of emerging markets strategy at ING in New York.

"Overall, EPFR Global-tracked bond funds took in another $6.51 billion, taking collective YTD inflows up to $47.7 billion, while their equity counterparts absorbed a net $2.74 billion," the firm said.

U.S. and global bond funds extended their current inflow streaks to 62 and 47 weeks, respectively.

U.S. bond funds over $2 billion in net new cash, putting the YTD inflows past the $17 billion mark.

"Nearly half of the new money taken in by U.S. Bond Funds again went to funds investing in short term debt, with Intermediate and Municipal Bond Funds accounting for another 40 percent of the total inflows," the firm said.

EQUITY FUNDS

U.S. equity funds had inflows of $221 million, Brandt said while global equity funds took in a net $1.2 billion as global equity markets continued to rebound.

Emerging market and Japanese equity funds took in net cash. Japan, whose loose monetary policy gives its exporters a boost, had inflows for eleven straight weeks, its best run since a 12-week streak ended in the second quarter of 2006.

"Greece's fiscal crisis continued to exert a drag on some fund groups, with Europe Equity Funds posting outflows for the seventh time in eight weeks and Financial Sector Funds recording the biggest net redemptions among the nine major sector fund groups," the statement said.

European equity funds had outflows of $502 million, the firm said, marking for a fourth week in a row the only major developed markets fund group to have redemptions.

"Overall, the five developed markets fund groups have posted net outflows of $8.01 billion YTD, a big improvement over the $55.6 billion they collectively surrendered through the first 10 weeks of 2009.

African regional funds had inflows for a 27th consecutive week. Russian funds' net inflows reached 20-week highs, offsetting the net redemptions suffered by emerging European equity funds. Turkey's equity funds had a sixth consecutive week of net redemptions.

Chinese equity funds had net inflows of $31 million, only the second week when more money went in than out this year.

SECTORS

Financial sector equity funds had outflows of $364 million, taking YTD outflows to just shy of $2 billion.

Energy sector funds had outflows of $113 million despite oil prices above $80 a barrel. Technology funds took in $179 million and healthcare/biotechology funds had net inflows of $247 million "as fears of a biotech bubble receded." (Reporting by Daniel Bases; Editing by Richard Chang)