“It's definitely the case that pension funds have been reducing their allocation to equities and that's been driven mostly by legislative pressures to reduce their deficits and to match more closely their assets with projected liabilities.”
“Companies have been subject to pressures to look after shareholders by increasing dividends and doing share buybacks and also having to put money into their own pension funds.”
“I've been somewhat surprised by the weakness of investment levels in the U.K., particularly given the strong position the U.K. corporate sector has been in.”
“The story from the corporate sector is still fairly positive in terms of earnings and at the moment interest rates going up is more of a fear than a reality.”
“There's a little bit more caution coming into the investment outlook mostly because of fears of higher interest rates in the U.S. and Europe and now Japan.”
“The picture is still rosy for the near term; you're looking at higher interest rates overseas but not in the UK. The growth cycle still seems to have legs. We're seeing fairly good earnings momentum and profits growth.”
“We're in the midst of the U.S. reporting season, which looks pretty good. Companies in Europe seem to have been publishing good numbers, so I think the fundamentals are still pretty positive.”
