Managers may be caught out by a global slowdown

Synchronised global growth due to renewed optimism in Asia and Europe is unlikely to last beyond the next six months and may catch global fund managers unaware, according to the regular survey conducted by Merrill Lynch research. Fund managers appear only to be seeing the positive side of a global upturn, the first since 1994, and as a result have lowered their levels of cash and are switching into cyclical stocks. UK fund managers expect UK earnings per share to grow by 6% in 1999 and 8.5% in 2000. More than 95% of those surveyed said they expected a stronger economy and 38% said they ex...