In its quarterly Manager Intelligence and Market Trends report, the firm revealed emerging market managers performed particularly well throughout the quarter, along with growth strategies and macro hedge funds.
By contrast, low volatility, income and value-oriented equity managers struggled, as did the high yield bond contingent, it said.
Spot the Dog: Number of consistently underperforming equity funds soars to 56
The report emphasised the importance of ‘new manager search data', or the number, volume and type of mandates being launched by institutional investor clients, in assessing investor sentiment.
This data revealed the popularity of fixed income managers increased over Q2, with the category comprising 18% of new searches, up from 11%.
Private market strategies continued their period of strong approval, comprising over half of new manager searches at 53%, down from 58% in Q1 but still higher than its 49% recorded in 2021.
Within private markets, private debt led the pack, with 39% of new manager searches, while infrastructure rose considerably from 11% last year to 31%. By contrast, real estate suffered a decline.
Central bank divergence looms as developed economies face macroeconomic variance
"Industry-wide fundraising data, meanwhile, showed private market capital raising at its lowest level since the quarter that immediately followed the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic," the report noted.
Examining risk using the bfinance Risk Aversion index, the report found risk appetite has slowly ticked up, rising almost to 0.6, ahead of the ten-year average of 0.48.
"May and June, in particular, have seen the RAI at its lowest level since mid-2021," the report said.
This was partially due to the sharp uptick in allocation towards equities, which rose from its lowest since 2008 at 28% in Q4 2022 to 33% this quarter.