The index, measuring actively engaged Australian investors’ current intentions for foreign investment, increased nine per cent in October, from 160 points to 175.
High net worth individuals remained the most bullish, but the gap between them and other active investors narrowed this month.
The results showed investors are looking to invest overseas in the short term rather than later on. Forty-one per cent indicated they intended to invest within the next three months.
Investors also showed strong interest towards investing in international funds covering multiple regions, with 34 per cent intending to invest within the next year.
Interest in Asian markets suffered with a decline to 21 per cent.
While the level of respondents looking to invest in the United States also declined significantly, it remains of most interest to investors with 40 per cent of respondents planning to invest in the region.
Certitude Global Investments chief executive Craig Mowll said this was due to investors wanting to spread their risk through multiple regions given the disappointing economic results emerging from Asia, and US market uneasiness about the future.
“Investing in international funds gives them access to markets and regions they may not feel comfortable about investing in directly,” said Mr Mowll.
The CGIII results also revealed 44 per cent of investors preferred an actively managed portfolio. This was above the 37 per cent of respondents who preferred to directly purchase overseas shares to gain overseas exposure.
“With appetite at an all-time high for international funds covering multiple regions, investors may be looking for guidance from investment experts,” said Mr Mowll.
Equities are still the most popular asset class, with 89 per cent rating this as their preferred asset, marking an increase of 15 percentage points this month.
“As global economic conditions improve, equities are generally regarded as a good growth play, and have long been a favourite with Australian investors,” explained Mr Mowll.
The other major finding was that investors regard sovereign debt problems in Europe as the main barrier to investing.
Insufficient funds as a reason for not investing reduced significantly from the September figure of 16 per cent down to six per cent this month.
Investment Trends produces the CGIII every month by collecting the views of nearly 800 actively engaged investors, including high net worth individuals, self-managed super funds and higher income investors.
