Surveys
UK Investors Give Eurozone Stocks The Thumbs-Down - Lloyds Poll
A poll by the private bank of UK-listed Lloyds Banking Group shows investors have swung sharply negative towards eurozone shares, preferring the comforts of home assets instead.
A survey published by the private bank of UK-listed Lloyds Banking
Group showed, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the sharpest fall
in sentiment to any region happened over the eurozone in
September, a region where economic growth has stalled.
The single currency bloc expanded by 0.7 per cent in the 12
months to the end of July, with the entire European Union (of 28
nations) expanding 1.2 per cent. The move has prompted the
European Central Bank to loosen monetary policy yet further.
Against that background, the Lloyds Bank Private Banking Investor
Sentiment Index registered that attitudes towards the eurozone
were firmly negative, at -28 per cent, a fall of seven percentage
points from the previous snapshot.
On the other hand, sterling-denominated investments were favoured
far more, it said. UK Property is now reading a net positive
sentiment score of 38 per cent and UK equities are at 33 per
cent. This compares to emerging markets, a distant third-largest
in terms of asset class consumer confidence, at 16 per cent. In
addition, UK government Bonds have seen the biggest year-on-year
increase with an 11 percentage point swing, while UK shares
benefitted from a nine percentage point positive swing, the
survey showed.
“This positive change in investor sentiment can very likely be
attributed to the recovery of the UK economy over the past 12
months, the outlook and perception of which has changed
dramatically over the last several months,” the bank said.
Net sentiment is a statistic showing the difference between those
who hold a positive view and those who hold a negative view each
month on the outlook for each type of investment over the next
six months. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov
. Total sample size was 4,307 adults of which 1,233 adults
were investors. Fieldwork was undertaken between 28 August and 1
September 2014.
