Investors 'moving from energy, into financials'
Fund managers are moving into bank shares - and out of oil and other energy stocks, the Guardian reports.According to a new survey from Merrill Lynch, investment professionals overweight in oil and gas fell in July from 52 per cent to 11 per cent, the Guardian reports.This reflected continuing falls in crude oil from this year's peak of $147.Currently, it is trading at around $120, despite the conflict in Georgia putting a major pipeline at risk of being disrupted.Indeed, its failure to tick upwards at this incident suggests to many that the price will now enter a long decline to below $100.Elsewhere, Merrill found that fund managers who were underweight in financial stocks - which have previously been decimated by the credit crunch - has revised downwards, from 57 to 40 per cent.While this does not suggest a renaissance in the shares yet, it is nevertheless instructive that Barclays and HSBC are currently trading around 30-40 per cent up from previous lows.
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