Risk-averse UK investors slash equity holdings in August - Reuters poll
By Jemima Kelly
LONDON (Reuters) - British investment managers slashed their equity holdings in August and bumped up their bets on bonds as heightened global tensions prompted a move away from risky assets, a poll showed.
A monthly Reuters poll of 10 UK-based investment managers released on Friday showed stock holdings fell by over 4 percentage points to 55.7 percent in August, from 60.1 percent the previous month.
Cash holdings, meanwhile, rose to 8 percent - the highest level in over a year - while bond allocations increased to 23.4 percent from 20.9 percent in July.
The poll was conducted between Aug. 14 and Aug. 27, as fighting raged in Gaza, Syria and northern Iraq and as tensions escalated between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
"The global economy is recovering but the negative geopolitical newsflow has proved a headwind for already expensive equity markets," said Robert Pemberton, investment director at HFM Columbus.
The move to safer assets came despite tumbling bond yields. German 10-year Bund yields plunged to a record low of 0.868 percent this month, while the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds slid to a 14-month low of 3.059 percent.
"Fixed income offers no value with very low yields on government bonds and tight spreads in the credit and high yield markets," said Pemberton. "Nevertheless ... investors have sought out lower risk assets amidst geopolitical concerns."
Within fixed income, investors ratcheted up their North American bond holdings as the U.S. economy showed signs of a robust recovery. Meanwhile, they cut their allocation to British gilts, as expectations of an imminent increase in UK interest rates have cooled.
"It is becoming increasingly evident that we are at, or close to, some form of a crossroads on interest rate policy," said Mark Robinson, the chief investment officer at Berry Asset Management.
"Consensus currently suggests that it will be the UK that blinks first, but there are signs that the US authorities ... may raise rates sooner than currently expected."
Investors also preferred U.S. to British equities, raising their holdings of U.S. stocks to a six-month high of 31.5 percent from 27.4 in July. They cut their UK equity holdings to 26.1 percent from 31.9 percent.
This month has seen the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index rise over 2,000 for the first time while the fellow U.S. blue-chip Dow index also hit a record high.
For a table of the poll results, click on
Europe poll table and story (EUR/ASSET)
U.S. poll table and story (US/ASSET)
Japan poll table and story (JP/ASSET)
China poll table and story (CN/ASSET)
(Reporting By Jemima Kelly; Editing by Larry King)
