Positive developments such as evidence of an underlying improvement in industrial production and exports in Asia are luring investors back into emerging markets, said Pictet Asset Management’s chief strategist Luca Paolini.
Representatives from Australia, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) on the Asia Region Funds Passport (ARFP) on Thursday, that should see the initiative launched next year.
What a difference a year makes. In the first quarter of 2015, the top 10 funds were a mixture of Japanese equities, Russian equities, and biotechnology funds, with a frontier markets fund rounding things out.
European investors did themselves a disservice in February. They sold out of pretty much all asset classes when markets hit (in some cases) multi-year lows before recovering their losses in the past couple of weeks. The outflows mainly hit active funds, as ETFs saw modest net inflows.
Outflows from open-ended funds in Europe continued apace in February, the latest data from Morningstar reveals.
Low, zero or even negative rates do not bring about the rebounds in growth and inflation that neo-Keynesian models predict, said Pimco’s Scott Mather.
More assets will be invested in alternative investment funds than in fixed income globally by year-end if the current fund flows trend persists. Net flows into alternative funds saw double-digit growth for the second year in a row, according to a Morningstar report.
Despite political and economic turmoil and the threat of Brexit, European equities are still packing a punch with investors
The biggest portfolio risk this year is not yet priced into the market, said Kevin Liem, chief investment officer at wealth management firm TTG in Hong Kong.
The firm believes “lower for longer” will apply to energy prices, inflation and interest rates over the next five years.
The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) said it is confident the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) would complete its assessment of a second wave of nations for inclusion into the AIFMD passport system by June 30.
While the first two ‘arrows’ of Abenomics have helped boost Japanese equity performance and devalued the yen, the jury is still out on whether the strategy is succeeding. Much will depend on the third arrow of structural reform.
