State Street Global Exchange (SSGE) has announced that its Global Investor Confidence Index (ICI) went up in February to 70.9, up 1.5 points from January’s revised reading of 69.4, driven by a slight uptick among North American investors from 65.7 to 66.3 and a growth of 6.1 points among the European investors.
At the same time, the Asia ICI decreased by 3.5 points to 96.4.
The index measured confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by analysing the buying/selling patterns of institutional investors, with a reading of 100 being neutral at which investors were neither increasing nor decreasing their long-term allocations to risky assets.
Kenneth Froot, who developed the ICI together with Paul O’Connell at state Street Associates, said that institutional investors remained cautious in February and continued to show hesitance toward riskier assets.
“With lingering growth and trade policy uncertainty, it appears that the more dovish Fed and the hopes for progress on the US-China trade front are not enough to tip the scales – related to risk aversion,” he said.
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