Bears get louder HSBC’s eighth Emerging Markets Sentiment Survey depicts a rather gloomy picture as already cautious investor sentiment1 is further depressed. The share of investors who are now ‘bullish’ on emerging markets (EM) prospects over the next three months has sunk to the lowest level since the inception of the survey two years ago. The net of the ‘bullish’ versus ‘bearish’ sentiment also stands at its lowest. Consistent with that gloomy mood, cash holdings keep going higher. Those with more than 10% cash in their portfolio as a percentage of assets under management (AUM) shot up to 33% from an already high 25% in the previous survey. This could partly be attributed to a decent return now earned by cash due to central bank rate hikes