By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese fund managers marginally trimmed their holdings of stocks in August, as a slide in global risk assets markets prompted them to raise holdings of safe-haven bonds, a Reuters survey found on Friday.
A survey of seven Japanese-based fund managers, conducted between Aug 17 and 25, showed respondents on average wanted to allocate 44.1 percent to stocks in August from 44.8 percent in July.
The reduction was tempered by lingering expectations of moderate earnings recovery despite a plunge in Chinese shares deepening worries about its economy and sending global equities into a tailspin.
"Stock markets in various countries are expected to recover as pessimism towards the Chinese economy appears to be exaggerated and as the U.S. Federal Reserve could delay hiking interest rates," said Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments.
The MSCI World Index <.WORLD> tumbled as much as 11 percent in August but had cut the loss to 8 percent as of Thursday as risk aversion eased following aggressive rate cuts by the People's Bank of China.
Within stocks, fund managers kept Japanese equities unchanged at 48.8 percent.
On the other hand, they reduced ex-Japan Asian stock weightings to 3.3 percent, from 5.8 percent in July.
The respondents' allocation of bonds rose to 51.3 percent in August from 49.1 percent in July, probably influenced by the turmoil in global markets.
Their exposure to U.S. bonds was reduced to 24.9 percent, from 27.8 percent in July with the possibility of the Fed raising rates in September not ruled out completely.
On the other hand, they increased their weighting on Japanese bonds to 49.7 percent from 45.6 percent in July as the Bank of Japan is nowhere near ending its stimulus with inflation still far below its target.