Bank of America Asia Fund Manager Survey: AI Confidence Heats Up, Inflation Concerns Rise, Storage Is the First Choice for AI Investments

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the latest October Asian fund manager survey released by Bank of America showed that investors' confidence in AI topics increased significantly in October, and concerns about AI overvaluation were mitigated; at the same time, concerns about inflation have clearly heated up, and the Bank of Japan's interest rate hike in December has become mainstream expectations.

Confidence in AI has increased significantly, and storage has become the best risk-reward choice for AI

According to the survey, 70% of investors believe that AI monetization will be the biggest driver of Asia Pacific stock market performance in the next 12 months. At the same time, only 35% of investors believe that the positive impact of AI has been fully or overpriced. This ratio is significantly lower than 55% in September, indicating that the market's concerns about AI's overvaluation have abated.

Positions have also become more active, with 45% of investors still overequipped or rotating within AI, up from 25% in September. In the “Best Risk and Reward Opportunity in the AI Value Chain in the Next 12 Months” selection, storage ranked first with 30% of votes, a sharp increase from 20% in September; connections/networks ranked second, followed by power and energy, and data center infrastructure. The vote rate for software and platforms plummeted to 5% from 25% in September.

Inflation concerns are heating up, and the Bank of Japan's December interest rate hike is expected to become mainstream

At the macro level, growth expectations remain stable, and the economic outlook for the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is still stronger than that of the world. But concerns about inflation have risen markedly: net 50% of investors expect higher inflation over the next 12 months, which is far higher than 25% in September.

In terms of Bank of Japan policy, 60% of investors expect the next rate hike in December. This is in line with the expectations of Bank of America's Japanese economists.

On the subject of the Japanese stock market, profit has replaced the Bank of Japan's policy normalization and has become the most critical theme in the near medium term. The revised profit ratio of Japanese companies hit a record high in September.

Technology and AI are still popular, and Asian capital is shifting to healthcare, materials, and industry

At the same time, expectations for the recovery of the semiconductor cycle have increased, and 50% of investors expect the increase in exports from South Korea/Taiwan to strengthen the semiconductor cycle.

In terms of position allocation, Taiwan and Japan are still the most popular markets for investors, reflecting continued optimism about investment opportunities in technology and AI related fields.

For Asian markets other than Japan, investors further shifted their allocation to the healthcare, materials, and industrial sectors this month, while reducing their allocation to the insurance and consumer industries. In the Japanese market, holdings are still highly concentrated in the banking and semiconductor sectors.