LONDON (Reuters) - Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, said on Wednesday it had turned neutral on Chinese equities in the latest sign of a shift in investor sentiment towards the world's second biggest economy.
In its latest global investment views, Amundi noted a divergence between resilience in the U.S. economy and China weakness and said it has upgraded U.S. growth forecasts while downgrading China's.
"On top of the construction slowdown, the services sector deceleration is concerning," the note said, referring to China. "In addition, the pain threshold for policymakers has become vague, and it does not seem that 3-4% growth will trigger more substantial responses."
Amundi added that it had lowered its position on Chinese equities to neutral.
In addition, the asset manager said it preferred Japanese equities to U.S. stocks, was "constructive" on emerging market bonds and had turned marginally more positive on Brazil.