Indonesia and India face structural obstacles to economic growth from the double whammy of weaker currencies and high oil prices. Lack of fuel subsidy reform is holding both back.
Tag : oil
The alternatives arm of asset manager Vontobel aims to hit capacity for the product within five years with the help of sales through private banks in Asia.
Experts argue markets are not taking into account likely sharper demand for oil and natural gas and a potential supply crisis in coal, copper and iron ore.
Demand is rising among Asian corporate and institutional clients for commodity hedging and investments, and dealing desks in Singapore are bulking up.
Actively managing the underlying assets can sometimes be a better approach, says portfolio manager David Donora, who foresees a $1 trillion commodities market within 10 years.
But Victor Sperandeo, the man behind the Trader Vic index, is upbeat on gold and grains, and sees stock markets doing well in six to 12 months.
In fact, asset managers are as bearish as they have been since early 2009 on several counts, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch's June fund manager survey.
The oil price is set to rise in the medium to long term, says product specialist Philippe de Lavalette, who suggests looking at non-traditional ways of benefiting from it.
The country's government has identified areas in need of capital inflows, and investors appear to be taking note.
Amid bankers' concerns over proposed limits on trading, commodity ETFs and ETNs are attracting inflows, says Olivier Godin of SociTtT GTnTrale. But returns from instruments such as oil funds often surprise.
The firm's co-chief investment officer, Julian Mayo, outlines the benefits of investing in Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe.
US Federal Reserve officials also seem to miss the fact that excessive credit growth and leverage have driven monetary and economic instability, says Marc Faber.