Ken Froot
Asia looks like it’s turned the corner for investor confidence, heading into positive territory last month for the first time since the start of the Chinese sharemarket meltdown mid-year. But the level of investor confidence in North America has nudged down.
The monthly State Street Investor Confidence Index for October, the most influential global index of its kind given the universe of data collected by the big custodian bank, slipped 2.3 points to 114.3.
The main driver was a 7.7-point decline in sentiment about North America, to 125.5. North America had been the brightest spot for investor confidence all year.
Europe also concerned investors more last month, with a 5.8-point fall in that region’s contribution to the index to 89.9.
Asia, on the other hand, enjoyed a healthy 13.2-point rise to 111.0 – passing the ‘neutral’ 100-point mark.
Ken Froot, one of the developers of the State Street index, said: “Despite the ongoing uncertainty about the global outlook and dovish comments from the Fed, global institutional investor confidence remains 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. This is the first time that the Asia ICI has ascended above the key 100 threshold this year, signaling a more ‘risk-on’ climate.”