But the poll of 10 fund management firms showed their overall exposure to stocks and bonds was little changed. Equity holdings were unchanged at 50.6 percent, while bond holdings were at 40.4 percent after 40.7 percent in September. Cash holdings rose to 3.9 percent from 3.3 percent.
But holdings of euro zone bonds were cut to 50.9 percent from 57.9 percent in September, while euro zone equity allocations fell to 24.8 percent from 31.0 percent.
In place of euro zone debt, funds bought US and Japanese bonds and replaced their euro zone equities with US, Japanese and non-euro zone European stocks.
Over the last fortnight the European Central Bank has rung alarm bells on inflationary risks from higher oil prices.
"If price risks in the medium term are no longer in line with price stability we will have to act credibly ... and anchor inflation expectations," Axel Weber, ECB Governing Council member, said last Tuesday.
"We are scratching our heads about inflation as that is the big question market out there which is holding back equities and pushing up bond yields," Franz Wenzel, senior investment strategist for AXA Investment Managers, said.
"What people may have figured is it that it is the US market's turn (to rally) next," Michala Marcussen, associate director of strategy at Societe Generale Asset Management in Paris, said.
Allocations to hedge funds and property were little changed in October.