Fifty-eight percent of global investors believe their local stock market will end the year in positive territory, according to a global investor survey by Franklin Templeton.
Investors in the US and Canada lead the world in terms of optimism, with 64 percent predicting their local stock markets will end 2015 in the black. Investors in Europe come second with 62 percent, followed by Asia-Pacific at 56 percent. Investors in Latin America are the least optimistic, with only 46 percent predicting a gain in their local markets this year.
The survey also finds that investors overestimated the performance of their local stock markets for last year. When asked how their markets fared in 2014, 55 percent say it ended in positive territory, whereas markets in only eight of the 23 countries surveyed actually registered gains.
The survey of 11,500 investors in 23 countries further shows stocks remain the favored investment among global investors, with 59 percent opting for equities. Just over half (52 percent) opt for real estate, while precious metals are chosen by 39 percent. The same asset classes are picked as the top three in terms of performance over the next 10 years.
Investors in developed and emerging markets differ widely in their investment stances, with investors in the poorer markets ‘more likely to follow a more conservative strategy this year, in spite of the fact that emerging markets countries posted better average stock market returns than developed markets in 2014,’ the survey authors write.
Almost two fifths (37 percent) of investors in emerging markets cite inflation as a concern, compared with only 18 percent in developed economies. By comparison, 40 percent of investors in developed markets say they are concerned about the eurozone debt crisis, compared with 21 percent in emerging markets.
