The return of the Asian tigers

ASEAN

James Weir, portfolio manager at Guinness Asset Management, looks at the compelling investment story behind the South East Asian region.

The South East Asian markets (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) have been the stealth success of the post-financial crisis world, and the good returns from equities there (see Table 2 below) reflect the essence of the Asian investment story. At a time when investors are worried about financial repression in China and institutional incompetence in India, the South East Asian nations are a credible emerging markets growth option. In 2012 Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand all grew their GDP more than 6% in real term...