State Street Investor Confidence Index - March 2023
/The State Street Investor Confidence Index (ICI) results are out for March 2023, with a slight increase of 3.8 points to 81.4. February’s revised reading was 77.6.
European ICI rose 11 points to 117.5
North American ICI rose 0.9 points to 73.9
Asian ICI fell 6.3 points to 91.9
An ICI reading of 100 is neutral; it is the level at which investors are neither increasing nor decreasing their long-term allocations to risky assets.
“In the face of heightened stress in the US banking sector, institutional investors continued to take a defensive stance with the Global ICI posting at 81.4 in March, well under the risk neutral level of 100,” commented Rajeev Bhargava, head of Investor Behavior Research, State Street Associates.
“While the aggregate sentiment remained weak, it is important to report that investor confidence did not deteriorate further in March but actually firmed a touch, with our global measure gaining around 4 points.
Indeed, the North American ICI remained steady through March albeit at weak levels, possibly supported by talks that the FDIC will extend insurance to all deposits, and in Europe investor optimism climbed sharply higher. With Asia being the only region that witnessed a decline is sentiment, the behavior of institutions in March demonstrated some level of resilience to the recent bout of market volatility.”
