The jump, which followed two months of neutral sentiment (see chart below), reflected the decisions of several fund companies to upgrade their one-year outlooks. Indeed, no groups were negative on the S&P 500 Index, for the first time since Expert Investor Europe began compiling the survey in 2005.
Fund manager bullishness extended down the cap scale, with sentiment on US smaller companies (as measured by expectations for the Russell 2000 Index) also hitting a record survey high.
The shift tallied with a similar, albeit less pronounced, sentiment upturn in April’s Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Fund Manager Survey, which found US equity allocations at their highest levels since June 2012. The increase coincided with a sharp decline in worries over the US fiscal crisis.true
Elsewhere in the Expert Investor Europe study, expectations for European and emerging market stocks continued to decline, while bullishness on Japanese equities reached a record high.
The Expert Investor Europe Manager Sentiment Survey is based on data gathered monthly by Skandia from fund groups operating in Europe. Participants in April were: Allianz Global Investors, Aviva Investors, Axa Framlington, Barings, BlackRock, F&C, Fidelity, GLG, Henderson, HSBC, Ignis, Invesco Perpetual, JP Morgan, M&G, Newton, Old Mutual Global Investors, Pictet, Schroders and SWIP.
Platinum members can view full results from the latest survey here.
