Value investing has become less popular with investment managers, with the majority viewing growth as the way forward, according to the latest fund manager survey from Merrill Lynch.

Almost half (46%) of the 268 global fund managers who responded to the Merrill Lynch survey felt that growth investing will be more successful than value investment in the next 12 months. Value strategies, which involves buying shares below net asset value and has been extremely successful in the last year-and-a-half following the burst of the technology bubble, will still be favoured by 39% of managers. Growth investing involves buying shares in companies with high rate of returns in earnings per share.