PETALING JAYA, Malaysia, Jan. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In a statement today, Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd, an investment management company under the OCBC Group, with internal resources to manage both local and global investments for its clients, remains cautiously optimistic on equities in 2016.
According to the Company's chief executive officer, chief investment officer and executive director, Teh Chi-cheun, the cautiousness stems from the continuing decline in commodity prices and Asia, especially China's growth and stock market bubble burst.
"While the decline in crude oil prices bodes well for energy importing countries which comprise most of the world, the decline in non-energy commodity prices is rather negative for most developing countries, which are rather dependent on such commodities for their exports and GDP. There is also the currency volatility which is expected to continue into 2016, albeit not as severe as in 2015," says Teh.
"We are optimistic as we expect global equities to rise given the decent economic growth of the US with ample liquidity on the back of continued quantitative easing by Europe and Japan coupled with monetary easing in Asia, especially by China. Although valuations of equity markets are getting a bit rich, they are not yet excessive," adds Teh.
The local bourse is also expected to be robust on the back of ample local liquidity and the relatively low foreign shareholding (22.2% as at end of October 2015 compared to 23.8% in December 2014). There is also a continuous inflow of monies into various government and government-linked funds which have to be invested in the local bourse, and the injection of RM20 billion into ValueCAP will be positive for the market.
Given a more volatile 2016, Pacific Mutual will focus its investment decisions predominantly on valuations, liquidity, policies and events (such as the lifting of sanctions on Iran likely to happen in second quarter 2016 and the US Presidential elections at the end of 2016).
In the same statement, Pacific Mutual also announced income distributions amounting to RM16.8 million for three of its Funds for the financial year ended 31 December 2015:
| Pacific Dividend Fund |
- |
5.00 sen per unit |
| Pacific AsiaPac Income Fund |
- |
2.00 sen per unit |
| Pacific Cash Fund |
- |
0.40 sen per unit (quarterly distribution) |
PACIFIC MUTUAL FUND BHD is a subsidiary of Lion Global Investors Limited (formerly known as Lion Capital Management Limited), a company incorporated in Singapore since 1986. Both companies are members of the OCBC Group. As at end December 2015, Pacific Mutual manages close to RM1.5 billion on behalf of its unit trust investors and private mandate clients.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Cindy Leong
+603-7725-9877 ext. 238
cindy@pacificmutual.com.my
Cindy Thean
+603-7725-9877 ext. 226
cthean@pacificmutual.com.my
