Barings Barometer: EM, Asia and US most popular
UK investment professionals are looking abroad for opportunities, with emerging market, Asia ex Japan and US equities the most favoured asset classes, research from Barings has found.
The latest Baring Investment Barometer revealed 87 per cent of UK investment professionals were favourable to emerging market equities, followed by Asia ex Japan equities (84 per cent), global equities (84 per cent) and US equities (83 per cent).
Investors have also become more favourable towards UK equities, multi-asset products and emerging markets debt.
However, the biggest rise in sentiment was seen towards European equities, with more than half (53 per cent) of respondents saying they were now either ‘quite’ or ‘very’ favourable, up from 42 per cent in the last survey.
Rod Aldridge, head of UK retail distribution for Barings, said: “It seems that while the majority of advisers remain deeply concerned over the eurozone debt crisis, some are sensing opportunities in what is a critical time in the evolution of the eurozone and the political and monetary efforts to support the bloc.
“Favoured sectors such as emerging markets and Asia remain popular, if less so than three months ago, while sentiment towards the US is also less robust. In particular, nearly half of respondents cited the so called ‘US fiscal cliff’ as one of the biggest global macroeconomic challenges right now.”