State Street has reported that institutional investors have ended the first half of 2025 “on a high note” through aggressive buying into risks as stocks soar to new heights.
According to State Street Markets head of equity research, Marija Veitmane, institutional investors continued to add risk to their portfolios over June, “perhaps spurred by falling market volatility”.
The State Street Risk Appetite Index was unchanged from its level in May at 0.36 by the end of June, however, institutional investors have taken the time to add more allocations into stocks, increasing their exposure by 0.7 per cent, sitting above levels recorded at the beginning of the year.
“Even though we have seen broad-based buying of risky assets, the largest build-up in risky positions was in asset allocation, equity and commodity asset classes,” Veitmane said. “Institutional investors have increased their allocation to stocks, mostly redeploying cash.”
This increase in risk appetite appears to be a continuation from the previous month, when investor sentiment had rebounded to its highest point since February, while long-term allocations to equities returned to levels last seen just before the “Liberation Day” announcement.
Head of APAC macro strategy at State Street, Dwyfor Evans, said at the time that the centrepiece of stronger risk sentiment was the strong increase in equity exposure relative to the fall in bond holdings (which decreased by 0.8 per cent over May).
Additionally, Evans told InvestorDaily that investors have not only been “dipping their toes back into US equities”, but they also began to target “less loved” areas, namely US tech.
He further suggested that the soon-to-expire 90-day delay in tariffs “emboldened investors to some degree”.
“Where this becomes interesting is what happens after the 90-day implementation delay runs out … If we have now seen the worst of the trade tariff announcements … then I think markets can probably live with more uncertainty on tariffs.
“But, if [in] July and August, whether it’s global tariffs, or whether it’s Chinese tariffs, if we revert back to where we were at the beginning of April because of a lack of commitment in terms of trade agreements … that could realistically put a bit of an issue in terms of the risk trade again,” Evans told InvestorDaily in June.
Indeed, this appears to have further progressed, according to Veitmane.
“Within equities, we have seen consistent buying of US stocks, with the majority of the buying concentrated in the technology sector,” she said. “Buying of energy stocks and commodity currencies was also prominent, perhaps triggered by Middle East conflict-induced increase in oil prices.”
Looking towards the APAC region, Veitmane stated that Australia has “captured institutional investors’ imagination” over June.
“We have seen buying of stocks, bonds as well as AUD,” Veitmane said. “Domestic economic and earnings fundamentals are relatively strong, as the labour market continues to show strong signs of growth while wages steadily increase.
“Institutional investors have built large allocations to AUD, neutral positions in Australian banks, while equity holdings are still low.”
