Data from Refinitiv Lipper showed domestic investors sold $5.4 billion worth of equity funds in the first eight months of 2019, and they bought $4.9 billion in debt funds.
Debt funds offer better safety due to their stable returns and smaller fluctuations compared to equity funds, and are often preferred during difficult market conditions.
Hong Kong's protests, started to oppose a proposed law that would allow extraditions to China, have rattled its stock markets in recent months, as have worries over the Sino-US trade dispute.
Higher US tariffs on Chinese goods are expected to hurt Hong Kong firms this year, as they play a major part of the supply chain to China's exports.