An increasing number of investment professionals think developed market equities are overvalued, a survey has indicated.

Just over 70% of members of the awards body, CFA UK, who were surveyed said the asset class was overpriced – an increase of 30 percentage points of those with that view this time last year.

Yet a significant amount felt emerging market equities were undervalued. The percentage saying this was 40%, though views that the assets were overpriced were creeping upwards, reaching a quarter of the survey cohorts this year, from 19% last year.

Will Goodhart, chief executive of CFA UK, said: "The fact that more than 70% of respondents say that developed market equities are overvalued indicates that the so-called ‘Santa Rally’ might be running out of steam. With so much change occurring in 2016 and potentially 2017, it seems investors are concerned a lot of the positives may already be in the price. They could be reluctant to chase further gains.”

The valuations index also showed that views around government and corporate bonds being overvalued have risen steadily for the last four years and remain at record levels.

However, investors were split into groups of about a third on whether gold was over, under, or fairly valued.

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