World wide, investor confidence rose fractionally by 0.2 points to 104.5 from a revised December level of 104.3, according to the latest index from State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of Boston-headquartered State Street Corporation.

The index measures investor confidence on a quantitative basis by analysing the actual buying and selling patterns of institutional investors.

The mood was upbeat in North America, where confidence showed an increase of 4.4 points over December’s reading of 103.5 to settle at 107.9. In Europe, by contrast, institutional investors were more wary, and their confidence fell 5.6 points to 98.9 from the December level of 104.5.

Among Asian institutional investors, confidence rose slightly to 98.1 from a level of 97.5 in December.

Impressive growth numbers from China for 2009 are interpreted as buttressing anecdotal evidence that expansion continues apace there. At the same time, there is some evidence that while activity has picked up to a substantial degree in the developed markets, the recent pace of improvement may be difficult to sustain against a backdrop of uncertainty around monetary policy and regulatory change more generally.

In Europe, the results are seen as indicating continued concern about the fiscal difficulties of a number of the peripheral economies.