A record 67 per cent of investors are overweight in Chinese equities relative to the total assets they have under management, compared with just 19 per cent of asset managers favouring China a year ago, the Merrill Lynch monthly survey showed.
This is an abrupt turnround from the situation three months ago when a majority of fund managers were underweight on China. The 149 fund managers questioned control $536bn of assets.
“China is the preferred market despite the collapse of growth expectations, because investors think the country still has lots of policy tools to support growth, and see it as less hard hit by the credit crunch,” said Michael Hartnett, emerging markets equity strategist at Merrill.