Bond and cash holdings, meanwhile, rose very slightly in June from the previous month.

Surveys of 48 leading investment houses in the United States, continental Europe, Britain and Japan showed average equity holdings in a mixed asset fund falling to 51.8 percent in June from 52.3 percent in May.

A fifth poll of Chinese mutual funds, not included in the global aggregate, showed the same pattern.

Bond exposure among the global 48 rose to 35.1 percent from 34.9 percent and cash was lifted to 5.2 percent from 5.1 percent.

Although both the latter moves would appear to imply a search for safety, the increased exposure to bonds came mainly from a shift into riskier high-yield debt.

Participants in the poll indicated that they were being buffeted by a mix of concern that the global economy is slowing, that it may be hurt by government austerity moves and by the continuing worries over euro zone sovereign debt.

"We're quite cautious because we expect the global economy and profit growth to slow. We expect volatility coming from the European sovereign debt crisis and monetary policy," said Joost van Leenders, investment specialist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

But the data - including the moves into high-yield bonds - also suggested that investors have not caved in to fears of a double-dip recession.

In aggregate, they retained a modest overweight in equities and an underweight in both bonds and cash, positions that do not spell retrenchment.

"We regard the recent weakness in equity markets as a correction rather than the beginnings of a more lengthy downward move, and believe that equity markets are likely to resume their recovery," said Alec Letchfield, chief investment officer at HSBC Global Asset Management.

US fund managers trimmed their high exposure to equities slightly in June and raised their bond allocations.

The 12 US-based fund management firms held an average of 64.8 percent of assets in equities, compared with 65.2 percent a month earlier.

The poll showed managers increasing bond holdings to an average of 29.5 percent in June, from 28.8 percent in May. Cash allocations rose to 2.2 percent from 2.0 percent.

Changes in the US poll sample mean that the moves are not wholly comparable.

Continental European investors cut bond allocations to the lowest in four months in June and trimmed cash.

The poll of 13 Europe-based asset management companies showed a typical mixed portfolio holding 47.9 percent of its assets in equities this month, unchanged from May.

Japanese fund managers raised their weighting for bonds to a one-year high in June.

Stock weightings were little changed from the previous month.

The average bond weighting rose to 49.2 percent from 48.4 percent in May, according to the poll of 12 fund managers. The weighting for equities ticked up to 45.1 percent from 45.0 percent.

British fund managers sought the safety of cash at the expense of stocks in June.

The survey of 11 fund managers showed allocations to cash jumped to 8.7 percent in June, from 7.1 percent a month earlier in the average global balanced portfolio.

Allocations to shares fell for the fourth month running to 49.2 percent.

A fifth poll taken in China but not included in the global aggregates showed Chinese mutual funds cutting their weightings of equities to 74.4 percent from 78.3 percent a month earlier.