Euro doubts drag on investor confidence

Institutional investors in both North America and Europe remained cautious throughout October, driving down the monthly State Street Investor Confidence Index.

The global index fell 2.3 points to 114.3 despite a more bullish attitude on the part of institutional investors Asia where the index rose by 13.2 points to 111.0 points, the first time it has entered such territory this year.

Commenting on the October index, one of its developers, State Street Associates, Ken Froot said that despite the ongoing uncertainty about the global outlook and dovish comments from the US Federal Reserve, global institutional investor confidence had remained largely positive.

"Meanwhile, the increasingly accommodative stance taken by policy makers globally and hopes for state-owned enterprise reforms in China have had a large impact on Asian investors, boosting risk appetite by 13.2 points," he said.

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"This is the first time that the Asia ICI has ascended above the key 100 threshold this year, signalling a more ‘risk on' climate."

Commenting in the situation in Europe, State Street Global Markets in EMEA head of macro strategy, Timothy Graf said the drop in European investor sentiment was a worrying sign in light of some of the fundamental data that had been seen across the currency union of late.

"With inflation not recovering in the Eurozone, recent central bank hints at further easing may need to become more concrete before we see a significant increase in confidence," he said.