World equities rose on Friday yet still looked set to end the week down for the first time in 10 weeks, while poor economic data from German hit the euro and boosted bonds.

MSCI's all-country world stock index was up 0.6 percent but remained around 2.9 percent in the red for the week.

Europe's FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> was up 0.5 percent and Japan's Nikkei <.N225> earlier closed 1.88 percent higher.

Equity markets have generally been lower this week as investors have been hit by poor economic data, including Friday's news that Germany's economy sank 3.8 percent in the first quarter while France's dipped 1.2 percent.

Fear and greed (have) a huge part to play right now with everyone desperate to call the bottom of the market but absolutely terrified that these so called green shoots will quickly turn into dead weeds, said Andrew Turnbull, senior sales manager at ODL Securities.

Despite the week's losses, however, trackers of investment flows reported no let up in the shift to riskier assets.

EPFR Global said that in the week to May 13, investors had pumped a net $3.5 billion into emerging market equities for a total of $18.6 billion since the week ending March 11.

There were also flows into high-yield bond funds and developed-market equity funds.

GERMAN SLUMP

The yen rose broadly as much weaker-than-expected gross domestic product data out of Germany and various eastern European countries sparked renewed concerns about the depth of the global economic recession.

This drove investors to buy currencies perceived to be safer assets, with analysts saying the yen in particular is still seen by speculators as the funding currency of choice, helping it to a two-month high against the dollar.

The euro fell around 1 percent against the yen and also fell against the dollar.

Ten-year Bund yields were down 3 basis points on the day at 3.279 percent while the two-year Schatz yield was 3 basis points lower at 1.267 percent.

German GDP was a lot worse than expected, that's been the driver, said a trader.

(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash, Jessica Mortimer and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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