Swedish bank SEB turns to Asian equities
Asian stocks will beat European, SEB chief investment officer said.
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SEB, Sweden's third-largest bank by market value, plans to reduce its investments in European equities and instead put its money in Asia. The bank expects Asian stocks to outperform the European markets during the coming year.
“We are putting money in emerging markets where currencies are undervalued and government debt is lower,” Hans Peterson, chief investment officer of private banking and global head of investment strategy at SEB, told Bloomberg. “We expect the emerging markets in Asia to outperform the MSCI World Index by 3 to 4 percentage points over the coming 12 months. Now is the time to invest.”
The bank forecast struggling times ahead for global equity markets, mainly on the back of weak economic data from the U.S. and Europe.
“We want to limit our exposure to the big markets and to have a more diverse strategy where we split the money into the most sound, strongest regions, with limited debt issues, such as emerging Asia,” Peterson told Bloomberg, adding that he prefers China, Taiwan and South Korea.
Last Updated (Thursday, 03 June 2010 07:56)
