According to a monthly survey of British money managers, in which 14 investors participated, the average allocation in global balanced portfolios to equities slipped to 47.4 in July from 49.2 a month earlier.
Allocations to bonds - commonly seen as a haven in volatile markets - climbed more than one percentage point to 28.3 while the amount of funds parked for safe keeping in cash remained unchanged at 8.1 percent, still close to highs for the year.
The global economy has hit a rough patch. Leading indicators suggest that the immediate prospects have deteriorated, The average allocation to alternative assets such as hedge funds and commodities rose slightly to 13.4 percent from 13 percent while property exposure was 2.8 percent in July, up from 2.7 percent a month earlier.
Memories are still fresh of last August when a number of factors - including concerns about public debt in the United States and worries that the euro zone crisis would spread beyond Greece - combined to send markets into a tailspin.
With many of the problems that worried investors a year ago still unresolved, fears are growing that markets will once again suffer sharp selloffs in August 2012.
August will be a volatile month once again in anticipation of various developments taking place in September,nervousness ahead of events in the early autumn - such as stress tests for Spain's troubled banks - will keep markets on edge.
Some investors noted, however, that the heightened sense of nervousness and consequent cheap valuations on risk assets such as stocks could be paving the way for positive surprises.
But the mood was overwhelmingly cautious given uncertainty about the effectiveness of political decision making in tackling issues like the euro zone crisis.
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