After dipping in March, Hargreaves Lansdown’s investor confidence index has shown a rise in investor sentiment across all major global regions in April.
With a 29% increase, European equities registered the biggest jump, month-on-month, although investors still continue to prefer the US and Asia Pacific as uncertainty remains in markets.
Emma Wall (pictured), head of investment analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, noted in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, Europe was the investment region facing the most uncertainty as investors feared contagion risk and the reliance of much of the continent on Russian energy supplies.
“This month, confidence is returning, but there are still clear concerns about the uncertain outlook, with investors feeling most optimistic about North America and Asia Pacific markets,” she says.
Wall added that fund flows reflect this over the past month with investors buying into US and global equity funds to diversify their exposure.
While confidence has risen across all regions month-on-month, only in the US have levels surpassed where they were at the start of the year.
Elsewhere the survey revealed investors continued to prefer global emerging market and Japanese equities over the UK.
