Investors eye dividend-based equity funds amid trade tensions

KUALA LUMPUR: Investors are likely to focus on equity funds with a dividend focus or asset allocation funds this year, as uncertainty grows over China-US trade tensions and global economic talks and a tendency to be more conservative in making investment decisions, said a research house.

Morningstar Investment Management Asia Ltd associate director and research manager Germaine Share said global equity markets are seen as not performing as well as in 2017, with the biggest loser in terms of asset class being fixed income funds.

“Last year, we can see that investors actually moved into safer vehicles, for instance money market funds in a cross-border market, which shows that people were more conservative and took a risk-off kind of stance.

“For this year, equity markets have rebounded a little bit but investors are still cautious in terms of products,” Share told reporters after the annual Morningstar Malaysia Fund Awards 2019.

She also explained that the US-China trade war has impacted the Asian region, where the economies are intertwined with one another.

“It is not only related to China, because (Asian countries) have trade, import and export relations that would affect most of the Asian region, not only that, it also affects the entire value-chain to the industry specific or product-specific level such as smartphones,” she explained. — Bernama