Global institutional investors take heart

Confidence among global institutional investors rose this month, but was weak on the home front, according to the State Street Global Markets Global Investor Confidence Index. Confidence among institutional investors rose by 3.6 points to 82.6, from a revised June level of 79.0. Leading the way were Asian investors, whose confidence increased by 8.5 points to 82.9, from a reading of 74.4 last month. European institutional investors' confidence fell 0.9 points to 80.5. On the downside, confidence among North American institutional investors fell 6.9 to a reading of 84.7. “Globally, confidence improved somewhat, though this masks some regional variation,” Kenneth A. Froot, the André R. Jakurski professor of business administration at Harvard Business School in Boston, said in a statement. “Despite the market turmoil of the recent weeks, particularly in the financial sector, institutional investors perceive some value at current price levels, and their willingness to take risk to capture that value continues to improve from its December lows.” The index was developed through a research partnership between State Street Global Markets and Mr. Froot. State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of Boston-based State Street Corp., managed $1.9 trillion in assets as of June 30.