Fund managers have adopted their most bearish stance on European stocks since Merrill Lynch began its monthly survey of investor sentiment almost a decade ago, on the back of the Greek debt crisis and fears over contagion in the region.

The US bank's monthly survey of global fund manager survey, released today, showed a net 30% of investors said that the eurozone was the region they would be most likely to underweight, the worst support for the continent that had been recorded in the survey. The figure in April was a net 13% of respondents.