Market spasms fail to deter investors

By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - A month of sharp volatility on global financial markets has failed to put a major dent in leading investors' confidence, leaving them roughly positioned where they were when it began, Reuters polls showed on Friday.

Surveys of 44 investment firms in the United States, Japan, continental Europe and Britain showed them ending March with an average of 60.8 percent stocks in their portfolios, barely changed from the 60.7 percent at the end of February.

The steady nature of the findings comes despite a wave of risk aversion on financial markets that saw MSCI's main world stock index .MSCIWD tumble as much as 6.5 percent and volatility soar.

It implies that major investors have kept their nerve during the period and do not view it as having been a major sea change that required them to adjust their long-term outlooks.

"The decline in stock prices was merely a technical correction and did not imply a change in economic fundamentals," said Yuichi Kodama, an economist in the investment planning division at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance.

Such caution as did creep into portfolios also looked to be temporary in nature. Bond holdings dipped to 31.7 percent from 32.5 percent but cash edged higher to 4.5 percent from 4.3 percent.

Cash is often used as a quick parking place for money in times of uncertainty.

Tony Dolphin, director of strategy at Henderson Global Investors, said it was understandable that some had become more cautious but that stocks remained the best bet.