Reuters' monthly asset allocation poll of 51 wealth managers and chief investment officers in Europe, the United States, Britain and Japan was carried out from April 13 to 30.

During this period, global economic data broadly disappointed while tech shares suffered a sharp sell off on worries about greater regulatory scrutiny, and a slowdown in smartphone demand.

However, some 72 percent of poll participants who answered a question on the leading tech stocks said the recent pull back was temporary, with Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments, expecting an extended business cycle to at least 2020.

U.S. tech shares <.SPLRCT> are still set to end the month in the black.

Justin Onuekwusi, a fund manager at Legal and General Investment Management, added that while "techlash" regulation was one of the risks on his radar, there was little evidence so far of draconian measures that would constrain growth prospects.

In fact, he said the correction had reduced one of his other main concerns about tech: investor overconfidence.

The poll showed investors adding to overall equity exposure after a dip in March, with global equities up at 48.4 percent. They also raised their U.S. stocks allocation slightly to 38.2 percent, while eurozone equity allocations rose to 20.3 percent, the highest since September 2017.

Larry Hatheway, group head of investment solutions at GAM, took a slightly larger allocation to equities, saying the first-quarter earnings season was likely to be supportive.

Towards the end of April, this was borne out by stellar earnings from the likes of Amazon and Samsung Electronics.

And despite the recent muted growth figures from Europe, managers also retained an upbeat outlook on the global economy.

"We maintain a pro-growth strategy favouring equities over bonds, supported by a global synchronised economy and only a moderate pick up in inflation," said John Husselbee, head of multi-asset at Liontrust.

SAVINGS GLUT

On the fixed income side, investors cut overall bond allocations to 38.8 percent of global portfolios.

U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields broke above 3 percent for the first time in four years in April, as investors worried about the inflationary effect of higher oil prices and the growing supply of short-dated bonds in the United States.

"The rising budget deficit pushes up issues of long-term bonds, and we're no longer in a situation where a central bank is prepared to buy at any price," said Didier Saint-Georges, managing director at Carmignac. "Markets are moving from having to deal with an issue of savings glut to an issuance glut for the first time."

Euro zone debt, however, was in favour, rising to 31.1 percent of bond portfolios, the highest level in at least five years.

The European Central Bank's meeting on April 26 was seen as being on the dovish side as the bank gave few clues about its approaching decision on ending its bond purchases.

Investors trimmed allocations to emerging markets, with stocks cut to 13.5 percent from 14.3 percent and debt cut to 10.4 percent from 11.7 percent.

Cedric Baron, head of multi-asset at Generali Investments, said they had tactically reduced exposure to emerging markets, which could suffer from short-term dollar appreciation. The dollar <.DXY> hit 3-1/2 month highs in April.

Russian assets sold off sharply in early April after the U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on Russian businessmen and their companies. But some 80 percent of poll participants who answered a question on sanctions risk said they were not removing all Russian assets from their portfolios.

Partly this was because some did not have direct Russian exposure, or because they already had an underweight or zero exposure to Russian markets.

"The market always looks seductively cheap but the political risks are just too high," said Rob Pemberton, investment director at HFM Columbus.

But others, such as Raphael Gallardo, a strategist at Natixis Asset Management, argued there were tactical opportunities in the rouble which looked "structurally undervalued".

(Reporting by Claire Milhench; Additional reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia and Hari Kishan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

By Claire Milhench