However, is it realistic to expect this exuberance to continue? Will central banks hike rates? And how will this impact your investment portfolio? We invite you to join the conversation with our investment strategists to discuss how these nuances play out in the global markets and offer insights to help you position yourself well for the year ahead.

There is also increasing concern regarding China’s slowing growth. This, combined with recent sweeping policy changes to ensure social stability lead us to ask – do the old rules of investing in China still apply? Join us for an engaging, in-depth conversation with China experts to discuss China, its economy, and how recent policy shifts may play out in the year ahead.

Head, Advisory Solutions, Global Wealth Management

Standard Chartered

1. Steve Brice
Chief Investment Officer
Standard Chartered

2. Audrey Goh
Senior Cross-Asset Strategist
Standard Chartered

3. Manpreet Gill
Head, FICC Investment Strategy
Standard Chartered Singapore

4. Samuel Seah
Head, Portfolio Management, Discretionary Portfolio Management
Standard Chartered

Reflections on China speakers

1. Marc Van de Walle
Global Head, Wealth Management
Standard Chartered

2. Prof. Kishore Mahbubani
Former Singaporean Diplomat and China expert

3. Prof. Dr. Fan Gang
Professor of Economics,
Peking University, President, China Development Institute

4. Becky Liu
Head, China Macro Strategy
Standard Chartered

Our Group Chief Executive, Bill Winters opened the Global Market Outlook event where he reflected on 2021 and spoke of key and important lessons learnt as to how we save and the way we invest to help us navigate 2022. He introduced the session with a broad highlight of the coverage from our Investment team and about our and our client’s keen interest on China which would be addressed by the China panel discussion.

Following Bill’s introduction to the event, the host of the event, Pia Cooke, our Head of Advisory Solutions, introduced our investment team from the CIO office comprising of our Chief Investment Officer, Steve Brice, our Head of Fixed Income, Commodities and Currencies,  Manpreet Gill,  Senior Cross-Asset Strategist, Audrey Goh who shared  their views on foundation asset classes as well as our themes for Opportunistic ideas. Samuel Seah, Product Manager, Discretionary Portfolio Management, brought it all together to speak about how these views come together in the construction of a portfolio.

Steve Brice started out by sharing a quick synopsis of the performance of our recommendations last year and how great 2021 was for us where our asset allocation models outperformed  our benchmark by a huge margin due to our preference of global equities or overweight allocation to US equities, and a preference for the higher yielding areas of the bond market. Our CIO then went onto share our global macro views for 2022, inflation worries and what to expect from monetary authorities in the developed world on interest rates.

Manpreet Gill followed it up with what it could all mean for the outlook on equities. He delved into what could drive equity performance across our preferred markets, the US and Euro area, working his way towards our preferences in bonds and finally currencies. Audrey added some of the longer-term structural ideas as well as our views on equity sectors. The three key themes on China’s common prosperity, the winds of Climate Change and Embracing a digital future were covered in detail.

Samuel, our portfolio manager responsible for managing Standard Chartered flagship fund portfolios spoke of how the above views shared by our CIO team could all be brought together to build and manage a portfolio for our clients.

We then focussed our attention on a very critical area of interest to our clients, a topic that has been on top of everyone’s minds through 2021 through our Reflections on China.

Our China panel was chaired by Marc Van De Walle, our Global Head of Wealth Management who spoke with notable speakers,  Prof. Kishore Mahbubani, Former Singapore Diplomat and China expert;  Dr and Prof. Fang Gang, Professor of Economics, Peking University, President, China Development Institute and Becky Liu, Head of Standard Chartered’ s China Macro Strategy  discussed a variety of topics ranging from China’s slowing economy, government regulation and policies, China property market and property developers  and the big theme of China’s common prosperity and lastly the panel touched on US China relations and structural changes to infrastructure to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

The inflationary pressure is similar to what is felt worldwide. Central banks in New Zealand, Korea and Britain have raised interest rates in 2021 to curb inflationary pressure while the US Federal Reserve is speeding up the pace of tapering in preparation for potentially 3 rounds of rate hike in 2022. What are the assets that would likely hold up better during inflationary scenario?

Crude oil prices are back near five year high. Despite better oil prices, Malaysia’s national oil producer recently issued advertisements for its credentials in renewable energy. Banks are promoting solar energy partnerships and even shampoo bottle is recyclable. What are the impacts of all these to company bottom lines and more importantly, our bottom line?

Join our panel of speakers to discuss what can we do to beat inflation sustainably in 2022 and beyond.

Head, Investment Strategy & Advisory
Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia

Senior Cross-Asset Strategist
Standard Chartered Singapore

2. Claire Herbert

Associate Investment Director, ESG
Schroder Investment Management (SG) Ltd

3. Matt Bushby

Managing Director, Head Infrastructure Business Development
Franklin Templeton AM Malaysia

For those who missed the webinar, watch the playback video below.

The year is shaping up to be an exciting one in the financial markets.

As inflation spikes, central banks are expected to raise rates and technology stocks are under pressure as investors price in higher discount rates.

1. We prefer equities over bonds and favour US & Europe equities in the next 6-12 months as monetary policies remain easy and fiscal stimulus are underway. Technology stocks are supported by double digit earnings growth and remains one of our preferred sectors. Even as US Fed hikes interest rates, historical data shows that equities continue to perform well leading up to the first rate hike and after the hike.

2. Investors seeking income may find infrastructure investing as an attractive options, given its inflation hedge qualities and potential for consistent income.

3. Better days are yet to come for investors in Chinese equities and bonds. The recent reduction of banks’ reserve requirement ratio and policy interest rate are signs of regulators loosening up to address a slowing economy.

Sustainability was a central theme during our discussion and will be key focus for investors as regulators, companies and money managers are compelled to disclose their ESG practices.

We look forward to a year where economic growth remains strong while inflationary pressure eases.