Asia Pacific growth: Finding resilient companies even as economies rebound

Focus on high-quality companies

As many economies have started to bounce back from the worst of the pandemic, we are now back in more familiar territory of the new-old obsessions – central banks, the rate of money-printing and inflation. Markets have sold off on the arrival, as opposed to just the expectation, of better times.

There's been a sizeable rotation in equity markets along with a sell-off in bonds. Bond-like equities, which benefitted most from lower discount rates, have fallen. The most speculative, Covid-bolstered, technological and crowded end of the market has been hit the hardest.  Markets now seem reminiscent of where they were before the pandemic. The difference today is there is considerably more corporate debt, public finances have been traduced and market valuations are broadly higher. Policy-wise, we think there is likely to be a broader shift to more government intervention in markets, al...