SINGAPORE (Nov 28): Despite an increase in global investor confidence for October, a streak of cautionary investor behavior still persists, according to the Investor Confidence Index (ICI) released Thursday by State Street Global Markets.
Released on Thursday, the index found that investor confidence came in at 80.9, an increase of 1.7 points from September’s revised reading of 79.2.
A further breakdown revealed that the increase in sentiment was primarily attributable to a 1.1-point increase in the European ICI to 133.9.
Conversely, the North American ICI remained steady at 67.7, and the Asian ICI dipped by 0.1 point to 85.6.
“Global investor confidence inched higher in November, but still remains well below a neutral reading of 100, adding to the streak of cautionary investor behavior since late 2018,” says index co-developer Ken Froot.
“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,” he adds.
“European investor confidence remains elevated,” notes Michael Metcalfe, SSGM’s senior managing director and global macro strategy head.
“The last time European investor confidence was this high was just before the first round of ECB government bond buying in late 2014.”
The ICI measures investor confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by analysing the actual buying and selling patterns of institutional investors. A neutral reading of 100 is the level at which investors are neither increasing nor decreasing their long-term allocations to risky assets
