Mutual funds in China cut their recommended equity weightings for a second straight month in December, reflecting continued worries about policy tightening, the latest monthly Reuters poll of fund managers showed.
Fund managers are worried that stocks might continue to be weighed by monetary tightening into the new year, as the government will likely raise interest rates further and ramp up its campaign against inflation.
The average suggested equity weighting over the next three months fell to 82.5 percent from 84.8 percent last month, according to the poll of eight China-based funds conducted this week.
"Tighter liquidity and pressure from additional rate rises will drag on the stock market," said one of the fund managers polled. The participants declined to be identified.
Their suggested allocations for bonds rose to 4.3 percent from 3.2 percent last month, while recommended exposure to cash was raised to 13.3 percent from 12 percent a month earlier. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has lost more than 13 percent since a recent high in early November, and is on its way to drop about 15 percent for 2010 as a whole.
The central bank's decision to raise interest rates on Christmas Day, the second rate rise in just over two months, has fuelled concerns that Beijing might front-load a raft of tightening measures in the first half of 2011 to fight stubbornly high inflation, which is at a more than two-year high.
Still, the fund managers see Shanghai shares gaining nearly 7 percent in the first quarter of 2011.
On average, they saw the index reaching 2,963 points in three months, up from 2,776 points at which it stood at midday Friday. "Potential risks come from inflation pressure and harsher-than-expected tightening policies," another fund manager said.
Within an equities portfolio, the suggested weighting for financial shares was raised to 12.1 percent from 9.8 percent a month earlier, while those for metal and energy stocks were raised to 6.6 percent and 8.4 percent from 5.9 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively.
The suggested allocation for consumer stocks was cut to 26.1 percent from last month's record high of 32.6 percent, although it remains the most popular sector in fund manager portfolios.