The latest fund manager poll by BofA Merrill Lynch signalled a flight to safety as the bad start to 2016 worsened.

Investors worldwide have pulled back from equities and boosted cash holdings amid growing concerns over China's economic growth, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for January.

Fieldwork for the survey, from 8-14 January, happened ahead of this week's fresh bout of market selling as oil prices plummeted and US stocks fell to the lowest level in 21 months. As of today (21 January), stocks remained under pressure. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, for example, was down around 1.4 per cent. Fears of a slowing Chinese economy have hit a variety of markets.

A net 38 per cent of investors are now overweight cash as average cash balances grew 5.4 per cent month-on-month, the third-highest reading since 2009. Meanwhile, those in the overweight camp for equities halved to a net 21 per cent from December’s net 42 per cent, according to the survey of 211 panelists with $610 billion of assets under management.

Only 8 per cent of fund managers expect the global economy to strengthen over the next year – the survey’s lowest reading since 2012 – and a slowdown in China was once again flagged as the largest “tail risk”.  

However, investors are not yet "max bearish", said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

“They have yet to accept that we are already well into a normal, cyclical recession/bear market,” he said.

While bearishness towards global emerging markets equities is now at a record level, Europe and Japan remain the most popular stock markets.

“Investors’ bullishness towards Europe remains intact, but conviction is rooted to the floor,” said James Barty, head of European equity strategy at BofA Merrill Lynch.