FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

UOB pins its hopes on equity investments

UOB pins its hopes on equity investments

UOB Asset Management has said investment in equity is still the way to go this year but investors have to be more selective due to the divergence of developed markets' monetary and fiscal policies.

It also said Japan’s small and medium stocks were the most attractive because the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises were expected to be boosted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies.
UOB expects to increase the total value of its assets under management (AUM) from Bt267.67 billion at the end of 2014 to more than Bt300 billion by the end of the current year.
It plans to achieve this target by introducing more products for all types of investors while also focusing on increasing the number of its institutional investors.
The company said it expanded 23 per cent in 2014, which was better than the industry’s average growth of 20 per cent.
It said it was one of the most active fund managers last year in terms of introducing trigger funds, with seven funds worth around Bt18 billion in total made available.
Vana Bulbon, UOB chief executive officer, revealed that 60 per cent of the fund manager’s investments in 2015 would be focused on local and foreign equity markets because of the expected economic recovery in Thailand, the apparent economic recovery in the United States, the global trend of accommodative monetary policies and the quantitative easing programmes in Japan and Europe
He said that 50 per cent of UOBs ventures in equity would be largely focused on foreign stocks and the rest would be concentrated on Thai stocks.
“I am bullish about Japan. They have been in deflation for the past decade but it is obvious that in the past two to three years Abenomic has contributed to the rise of the country’s inflation rate and this coupled with the current weakness of the yen has allowed Japanese exporters to be able to open their eyes and mouths for the first time in many years,” he said. 
“Japanese companies were also able to increase the wages of its employees for the first time in 10 years.” 
The delay in increasing Japan’s value-added tax is another factor that will boost the Japanese economy in 2015, he added. 
Siripun Sutharoj, UOB chief investment officer, said the Stock Exchange of Thailand Index could reach 1650 basis points with a price earnings ratio of around 15.5-16 times by the end of this year.
She said the earnings per share for the country’s main stock index was expected to be around 10-12 per cent in 2015 based on the assumption the country’s gross domestic product would expand 3.5-4 per cent.
“The expected increase in government spending on investment will be the supportive factor for the economy, and the tourism industry is expected to have a good recovery this year while the falling oil price will also boost domestic consumption,” she said. 
“These factors will help with the expansion of the economy and it will also be a positive for companies’ performances and investments in Thai equity, especially stocks in the consumption and construction sectors.”
She added that the recent increase in Japan’s export value, supportive economic policies and the Bank of Japan’s accommodative monetary policy would boost the country’s economy.
She said investing in China and India stocks was tempting because their economies had the potential to improve and in general the stock prices were not that expensive.
 
nationthailand