Japanese fund managers reduced their global stock weighting to a 12-year low in March, while raising their bond weighting to an all-time high as they lightened risk positions after a devastating earthquake in Japan, a Reuters survey showed. Fund managers increased their cash position in March to the highest level since November 2009 after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan severely damaged Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Money managers also had to actively cut their risk positions as increasing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa bolstered global oil prices. "The massive disaster in Japan was the major factor. But even leaving that aside, uncertainty was already building due to unrest in the Middle East and North Africa," said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist at Daiwa Asset Management.
Fund managers' average weighting for global equities in March fell 3.4 percentage points from the previous month to 42.6 percent - the lowest since January 1999. The weighting for bonds climbed to the highest since the survey was first compiled in February 1995. It jumped to 49.5 percent in March from 47.6 percent a month earlier.
The poll of asset management companies was conducted March 14-24 when Japan's benchmark Nikkei average rapidly plunged to a two-year intraday low of 8,227.63 on March 15. The Nikkei regained some strength, climbing to around 9,500 this week as foreign investors flocked to purchase oversold Japanese shares, but the market lacked the energy to post convincing gains amid views that the nuclear crisis in Japan was far from over, equities fund managers said.
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