Eurozone investor confidence hits 10-year high in March, Sentix says

Investor confidence in the Eurozone's economy reached a 10-year high in March as expectations improved for all of the world's main regions, according to one of the most widely-tracked barometres.

Sentix's economic confidence index jumped from a reading of 17.4 for February to 20.7 in March, following a dip from 18.2 in January.

Market consensus had been for a reading of 18.5.

"We believe that there is no imminent threat to economic prosperity. Besides the positive development of advanced economies, economic momentum remains strong for the emerging markets. Even Latin America manages to gain momentum," Sentix said.

Subindices referencing investors' confidence about the current situation and expectations improved by 3.3 and 3.5 points, respectively, to reach readings of 23.8 and 17.8.

The reading for the current situation in the euro area was the best since May 2011.

Comparable indices for Germany, Japan and the US all rose strongly but the largest improvement overall was for Emerging Markets.

Sentix's index of investor confidence in Latin American economies rose from -0.6 in February to 3.2 for March, with a subindex linked to the current situation up from -10.8 to -7.5 and another linked to expectations for the region gaining from 10.0 to 14.5.

In parallel, that for Asia ex-Japan picked up from 19.8 to 24.6, with the corresponding current situation gauge advancing from 25.8 to 29.5 and that for expectations improving from 14.0 to 19.8.

The investor confidence index for US rose from 31.0 in February to 33.6 in March, while that for Japan increased from 13.2 to 17.0.