Sentiment towards emerging market equities, Japanese equities and commodities all jumped significantly in the last month, according to the latest Lloyds Bank Private Banking Investor Sentiment Index, which shows the difference between those who hold a positive view and those who hold a negative view each month for each type of investment

Sentiment plummeted to record lows in September amid concerns about China’s slowing economy but started to rebound in October.

Recent weeks have seen increased stability in China, enabling “very strong returns” for investors.

This was largely driven by policy interventions by the Chinese Central Bank, which combined interest rate cuts with reductions in banks’ reserve-requirement ratios, to lower corporate financing costs and pumping liquidity into the economy, the report said.

Investor sentiment was also lifted considerably by the US Federal Reserve explaining that their decision to hold interest rates at current levels was due to global weakening of growth, rather than any inherent problems with the US economy.

This helped to improve sentiment across the board, but also helped to push the second month-on-month improvement in US equities.

UK property was the only asset class to see a reduction in sentiment. However, even this reduction was marginal.

This month, actual market returns have been strong for equities in the big global economies of the US, the UK, the eurozone, emerging markets and Japan. Only UK Government bonds and UK corporate bonds performed worse than the previous month, with both showing small month-on-month reductions, the research found.

Ashish Misra, head of portfolio specialists at Lloyds Bank Private Banking, said: “Positive policy interventions from central banks are helping to provide strong performances for many asset classes at the moment.”

Meanwhile, separate research reveals record numbers of savers are likely to include emerging market funds in their retirement planning this year.

According to a Baring Asset Management survey of 1,500 UK adults, 18% are considering investing in emerging markets, the highest level since 2009 and an increase on the 17% seen in 2014.

When asked about specific emerging markets, eight per cent said they would likely invest in major Asian economies such as China, India and South Korea while the same number said emerging European markets such as Poland.

One in 20 said they would likely look at the ASEAN region, while four per cent – double the number from the last year’s survey – said they would likely look at frontier markets.

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