Japanese electronic trading giant MONEX Group has released its Thirteenth MONEX Global Retail Survey which was conducted in June 2014, which for world stock markets for the coming three months suggests have turned bullish and demonstrate heightened optimism among individual investors in Japan and China (Hong Kong), while their U.S. counterparts have turned more bearish.
By sector, “Technology,” “Healthcare” and “Energy” remain popular in the U.S. and China (H.K.), while individual investors in Japan are attracted to “Automobiles,” “Real Estate” and “Medical,” among others. Individual investors in each region have different views on the Federal Reserve Bank’s monetary policy.
As far as FX is concerned, a dichotomy has been highlighted between Eastern and Western markets, with Japanese traders taking a bullish view, whilst those in North America remain bearish.
As far as MONEX Group’s prediction for the strongest currency over the coming months is concerned, the firm took data from its US subsidiary TradeStation, citing the US dollar as being the most likely to be traded, with a predicted trading percentage of 45% of all activity, whereas in Japan, the US dollar is predicted to account for 37.9% of trading activity.
With regard to traditional instruments such as stocks and equities, MONEX Group’s survey concluded that individual Japanese demonstrated their willingness to invest in Japanese stocks in the coming three months. The percentage of individual investors who want to increase their investments in Japanese stocks is larger than that of those who want to reduce their investments, as measured in terms of the frequency of transactions, amount of investment and number of stocks held.
The percentage of investors wanting to increase their investments rose significantly from the previous survey conducted in May 2014.
MONEX Group asked individual investors in each region about the most promising region in terms of stock prices in the coming three months. Japanese individual investors, who had the highest expectations for the United States markets in the previous survey conducted in March 2014, have the same level of expectations for the U.S. and Japanese markets. Most U.S. individual investors, albeit a smaller percentage than in the previous survey, have the highest expectations for the U.S. markets.
Their expectations for Japan are more than twice as high as in the previous survey. Chinese (Hong Kong) individual investors have the highest expectations for the Asian markets (excluding Japan) and the next highest expectations for the U.S. markets.
Relatively high expectations for Europe (U.K.) among individual investors in the three regions also attracted attention.
The percentages when viewed on a region specific basis are as follows:
JAPAN
U.S.: 37.5%
Europe/U.K.: 10.3%
Asia excl. Japan: 14.7%
Japan: 37.5%
UNITED STATES
U.S.: 58.4%
Europe/U.K.: 15.9% Asia excl. Japan: 13.3%
Japan: 12.4%
HONG KONG
U.S.: 34.7% Europe/U.K.: 18.3%
Asia excl. Japan:
40.2% Japan :6.8%
For the full survey, click here.