Investor Sentiment in UK Property Slows

• Confidence in UK property and shares still the highest; 52 percent and 38 percent respectively.
• Investor Sentiment Index records its largest average drop; down 3 percent.
• Gold and commodities remain relatively stable.

Investor confidence across all asset classes fell this month according to the Lloyds Bank Private Banking Investor Sentiment Index with UK property, and UK and Eurozone shares registering the largest drops.

Investor Sentiment In UK Property Slows

According to the monthly survey, the net sentiment¹ among investors in Eurozone shares fell eight points from -12 per cent to -20 percent, while confidence in UK equities went from 44 percent to 38 percent. Eurozone shares are the lowest, sitting at -20 percent, and the only asset class currently being viewed negatively by investors.

This was mirrored in part by UK property, which recorded a fall in sentiment of seven² percentage points (from 60 percent to 52 percent), the asset’s largest fall since the index began, but still clearly the highest in sentiment in the index.

Commenting on the latest Investor Sentiment Index, Ashish Misra, Head of Investment Policy at Lloyds Bank Private Banking, said: “For quite some time sentiment scores for UK property and shares have seen strong rises month on month. These drops may be down to the impact of property prices in certain areas while the uncertainty regarding the European elections may have given equity investors pause for thought.

US and Japanese shares both saw small drops of two percentage points, while sentiment towards UK govt bonds fell three percentage points to 12 percent.

While this is the first time all asset classes have registered a negative score in investor sentiment, the overall figure of 17 percent is still a 12 percentage point improvement on the same time last year.

 Investor net sentiment for major asset classes

FIGURES HAVE BEEN ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST DECIMAL PLACE

¹ 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 6 months. A positive net sentiment indicates that a greater proportion of investors’ surveyed hold a positive view, while a negative net sentiment indicates a greater proportion of investors with a negative view. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.

² Figure has taken into account rounding to the nearest decimal point. Sentiment in UK property fell 7.14 percentage points, from 59.60% in May 2014 to 52.46% in June 2014.