State Street Investor Confidence Index Rises

Global institutional investors continued to reduce their exposure to global equities but were less risk averse in May, according to State Street, whose Investor Confidence Index based on actual portfolios of their institutional clients rose to 79.5, up 6.6 points from April. The improvement was driven by North America, where the sub-index rose by 5.4 points to 76.7, and Europe, with the sub-index for the region gaining 5.9 points to 92.5. In contrast, institutional investors became more cautious in Asia, with the sub-index declining 4.2 points to 88.4. State Street noted that while institutional investors are still wary and remain entrenched in risk-averse territory as they have been all year due to mounting global trade protectionism and growth concerns, the solid uptick in May indicates that some are buying the dip in risk assets experiencing the weakest performance of the year.