BusinessTimes
Malaysian investors should take a long-term view of between three and five years and take advantage of the current cheap valuations, says CIMB-Principal CEO
THE global financial crisis may have wiped out trillion dollars worth of assets, but this should not deter local investors from investing in the stock market, said CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Noripah Kamso.
She said investors should take a long-term view of between three and five years and take advantage of the current cheap valuations.
"And when they invest, they must do so through a regular savings plan and do not invest in one lump sum," she said at a media briefing on how to invest in difficult markets in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
"Stay invested and do not try to time the market," she said, adding that the global recession will pass and market will rebound.
Chief investment officer Raymond Tang said if investors save slowly in capital market funds, they will get the returns.
"Buy when there is blood in the street," he said.
Tang said some US$1.8 trillion (RM6.32 trillion) worth of assets have been marked down worldwide by the US subprime crisis.
"In Asia, in the short term, there will be secondary effects but countries with strong domestic demand such as China and India will be able to withstand this," Tang said.
He said there is a lot of liquidity in the system now in Asia although banks are becoming more cautious in lending, but the slowdown may only be for the next six months or so.
"There will still be some growth as inflation is not going to be as bad in the months to come. Malaysian corporates are also in a better gearing position than they were 10 years ago and it is time that we should stop overly relying on the US market."
CIMB-Principal Asset Management, in trying to encourage the investing public to take advantage of the current situation to invest defensively, has put together eight core funds from over 70 funds it manages, into what it calls Flagship Funds.
The funds, said Noripah, have consistent long-term risk-adjusted returns and are widely diversified across different sectors and asset classes.
The funds are four conventional ones namely CIMB-Principal Equity Fund, CIMB-Principal Equity Growth and Income Fund, CIMB-Principal Balanced Fund and CIMB-Principal Bond Fund.
The other four are Islamic funds, namely CIMB Islamic Dali Equity Growth Fund, CIMB Islamic Dali Equity Fund, CIMB Islamic Balanced Fund and CIMB Islamic Balanced Growth Fund.
Out of the eight funds, three are invested up to 50 per cent in the Asia Pacific markets, excluding Japan.
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