(21 January 2013 – Australia) The share market has had a boost with fund managers controlling high proportions of Australians’ savings shifting large amounts of money from cash and bonds back to the markets.A source said 75 percent of global fund managers in its latest survey were holding an overweight view towards equities in the first quarter of 2013, compared to 40 percent in the last quarter of 2012.
Only 25 percent had a neutral outlook and no fund manager was underweight on equities.
The source said fund managers were bullish about United States and China equities for at least the first quarter of 2013 in the survey.
‘Key data in the US and China is improving, in the US manufacturing is improving and we saw overnight that unemployment was down.’
The source is predicting gross domestic product growth of 8.6 percent for China in 2013, driven by the emerging middle class there.
While the size of Australia’s share markets is small globally, its managed funds market is significant due to the use of superannuation contributions to invest in markets.