Investors are bullish on gold, UK property, commodities and UK shares, but are less excited about eurozone shares and cash.

UK investor sentiment stands at 6.10 per cent, its highest level since April 2016 and up from 2.98 per cent a year ago, according to Lloyds Private Bank’s latest sentiment index.

Appetite for gold increased the most in February, with sentiment rising to 46.37 per cent. Following gold was UK property (31.06 per cent), commodities (15.54 per cent) and UK shares (15.53 per cent). Over the past year, investors have taken the biggest stride towards commodities and Japanese shares, up 23.8 per cent and 22.49 per cent respectively.

Not all asset classes fared quite so well. Eurozone shares scored the lowest sentiment this month at -34.12 per cent, while cash was the second lowest at -30.86 per cent.

In the last year, however, investor appetite has waned the most for UK property (down 17.55 per cent), which Lloyds attributed to the Brexit vote. US shares are also down 4.29 per cent over the same time period, with a February score of -5.09 per cent.

“We saw a further increase in investor sentiment in February, as investors continue to ride the positive wave of sentiment that marked the beginning of 2017,” said Markus Stadlmann, chief investment officer at Lloyds Private Bank.

“Despite this, gold saw the biggest increase in popularity for the month, which would suggest that investor optimism is tempered somewhat by the need to shield against persistent geopolitical uncertainty,” Stadlmann said. “It is worth remembering however that a sentiment in excess of 40 per cent has historically been shown to be overly optimistic, which can create investor disappointment.”

He added that despite eurozone shares returning the lowest sentiment score "once again", the firm is more optimistic than some of its peers about the health of European corporates and the eurozone economy as a whole.

“Conversely we share investor caution towards US shares, having observed early indications that US corporate profits may have peaked, and in some cases are now in decline,” Stadlmann said.

The index represents the views of 4,269 UK investors.