More than half now evaluate public and private opportunities holistically – 53 per cent for equities, 54 per cent for credit, 57 per cent for income – signalling a structural shift in how APAC investors build their portfolios, the survey reveals.

APAC investors are reshaping portfolios as geopolitical uncertainty and market concentration are driving a reassessment of traditional asset allocation and reinforcing the case for active management, according to Schroders’ survey.

The findings – which surveyed more than 1,000 institutional investors, wealth managers and other intermediaries globally with combined assets under management of $72 trillion – found that 87 per cent of investors in APAC expect greater market volatility over the next year (vs 85 per cent globally), with 29 per cent (vs 26 per cent globally) expecting conditions to be “much more volatile.”

Conducted following the outbreak of war in Iran in early 2026, the survey found that geopolitical risks weigh more heavily on APAC investors than on their global peers. Armed conflict in the Middle East (76 per cent vs 69 per cent globally), continued uncertainty over US foreign policy and global leadership (70 per cent vs 67 per cent globally), and energy security (62 per cent vs 60 per cent globally) were the leading geopolitical concerns. Further geopolitical escalation (55 per cent), commodity and energy price shocks (52 per cent), and economic slowdown or recession (48 per cent) were seen as the events most likely to impact portfolios in the year ahead among investors in the region.

APAC investors repositioning
The survey showed that downside protection/capital preservation (83 per cent) and diversification (82 per cent) emerged as the most important portfolio priorities for APAC investors. They are also actively repositioning with only 5 per cent planning to maintain their allocations (vs 8 per cent globally). At the same time, concentration risk has emerged as a main concern. Only 4 per cent (vs 8 per cent globally) of APAC investors said they are unconcerned about index concentration, and 37 per cent are rotating into active management specifically to address it.

Investors are also mindful that technology and other themes may fall out of favour. If they were to diversify away from technology, those in the region identified energy (50 per cent), infrastructure (39 per cent), value-focused strategies (36 per cent), healthcare and life sciences (35 per cent), and real assets (35 per cent) as the most likely sources of returns and diversification – with a notably stronger preference for value strategies than globally.