Fund managers have not joined race into cheap, value stocks: BAML survey

LONDON (Reuters) – Fund managers have not piled into so-called value stocks, which have been shunned during the decade-long technology-led boom, even as shares in beaten-down companies have rallied over the past week, a key investor survey showed on Tuesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s latest monthly survey of global managers, which was carried out between Sept. 6 and 12., showed only 7% of investors expect value stocks to outperform growth over the next 12 months.

That undermines the idea that investors have been rotating en masse back into value stocks, which are generally defined as firms whose fundamental worth is not reflected in their current share price such as banks and autos.

Companies that boast a faster pace of growth like the big U.S. tech names have been favored during the past decade of central bank largesse.

Also, 47% percent of investors surveyed saw oil prices fairly valued around $55 per barrel before the weekend attack on a Saudi Arabia crude oil facility with investors holding the biggest underweight on the resource sector in more than three years.