Investor confidence up 1.7 points in November

Investor confidence increased to 80.9, up 1.7 points from October’s revised reading, according to State Street Global Markets Investor Confidence Index (ICI) for November 2019.

There was a 1.1 point rise in the European ICI to 133.9, while North America remained at 67.7, and Asia dropped by 0.1 to 85.6.

Kenneth Froot, one of the two developers of the index, said despite the rise in November it was still short of the neutral reading of 100, which added to the streak of cautionary investor behaviour since 2018.

“The stark regional difference between North America and Europe remained steady, particularly with policy uncertainty surrounding the impeachment hearings and the trade war continuing to weigh upon investor sentiment in the US,” Froot said.

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Michael Metcalfe, senior managing director and head of global macro strategy for State Street Global Markets, said the last time European investor confidence was this high was before the first round of European Central Bank government bond buying in 2014.

“While there has been a similar surge in confidence in 2019, it has at least lasted through the first month of actual bond purchases,” Metcalfe said.

The index was developed to measure investor confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by analysing the buying and selling patterns of institutional investors.

The greater the percentage allocation to equities, the higher risk appetite or confidence; a score of 100 was neutral.