Asia’s score on State Street’s investor confidence index declined 4 points to 90.3 last month compared to February, possibly due to concerns over China’s slowing GDP growth, according to Jessica Donohue, executive vice president and chief innovative officer.
During the same period, the European index declined by 1.6 points to 104.4.
“Market participants may still be concerned about any fallout from negotiations over Greek reforms,” Donahue said.
However, confidence among North American investors increased by 30 points to 135.4.
This could be due to the US Federal Reserve’s March meeting when it said it would wait until it saw “further improvement” in the US labour market before raising rates.
Many in the market now expect the US to raise interest rates in September compared to earlier expectations of June.
The global aggregate score of investor confidence increased in March to 120.1 from February’s revised reading of 105, State Street said.
“We’ve been in a post-crisis regime characterised by diversification out of international equities and into safer asset classes,” State Street said.
“However, given the continued liquidity provision from major central banks, institutions appear to be developing renewed appetite for global equities.”
State Street’s index measures investor confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by analysing the actual buying and selling patterns of institutional investors.
A reading of 100 is considered neutral and is the level at which investors are neither increasing nor decreasing their long-term allocations to risky assets.
