Equities: An improving landscape in the year ahead

Global equities: We see opportunities in defensives and cyclical sectors

Stephen Anness, Head of Global Equities

Stock market indices are not obviously cheap on traditional valuation measures. We would expect returns going forward to come more from earnings growth and dividends, rather than further re-rating.

The economic environment remains tough. Many industries including industrials, housing, healthcare and transport are going through extended downturns as consumer demand is tempered by exhausted personal savings and high interest rates.

Against that, central banks (outside of Japan) are now reducing rates as inflationary pressures continue to ease. The announcement of stimulus measures by the Chinese government could be another significant development supporting consumption recovery.

Our focus remains on bottom-up stock picking, and we continue to see idiosyncratic opportunities across defensives, cyclicals and the market cap range. We maintain a broadly diversified portfolio of businesses by geographic and industrial exposure.

Although stock specific research remains our focal point, it is important to be mindful of the economic and geopolitical risks that can influence stock sentiment. We watch with interest the policies pursued by the incoming US president and how the fast-escalating events in the Middle East could push oil prices higher.

However, perhaps most importantly, we continue to monitor whether the Fed can deliver the economic soft landing, avoiding recession without an uptick in inflation in 2025. 

Asian & emerging market equities: Valuation levels are compelling

William Lam, Co-Head of Asian and Emerging Markets Equities

While investors will remain mindful of geopolitical risks, the double-digit earnings growth outlook and reasonable valuation levels across much of Asia and emerging markets are compelling going into 2025.

The equity risk premium narrowed in 2024 with global rates easing, corporate earnings delivering, and markets being enthused by India and the AI supply chain. Fundamentals across the asset class remain healthy, and the implementation of China’s stimulus measures provide upside risk next year. Significant valuation disparity across markets, and genuine improvements in shareholder return policies provide fertile ground for active stock pickers.

World leading manufacturing and technology companies in North Asia include the ‘picks & shovels’ of AI-related growth. China, India, Southeast Asia and Latin America are the hotbeds of consumer demand growth, including innovative internet and e-commerce businesses.

Exposure to rising incomes and a growing middle class is also accessible through well capitalised financials, while commodity producers play an important role in the energy transition. Asia and emerging markets have some of the most exciting investment opportunities in the world and provide diversification benefits.

Given the disparity in valuations across markets and sectors, a selective approach is recommended. There are signs of exuberance in Indian equities and parts of Taiwan tech. But there are compelling opportunities across markets in consumer-related sectors including e-commerce, internet, financials, leading manufacturers, and commodity producers.

Geopolitical tensions, trade disruptions, global inflation, and currency volatility are key risks. However, robust fundamentals, healthy balance sheets, and reasonable valuations makes emerging markets a valuable contribution to portfolio diversification.

Indian equities: Strong earnings and GDP growth to continue

Shekhar Sambhshivan, Investment Director, Asia (excluding Japan) Regional Equity team

India is currently in the early stages of its growth trajectory and has significant potential for further development. The country has undergone rapid economic expansion fueled by strong corporate earnings and impressive GDP growth.

Corporate earnings are robust and are projected to grow in the mid-teens by 2025. As we look to the year ahead, we expect it will provide substantial support for Indian equities.

We see opportunity in the consumer discretionary sector. The country is approaching the threshold for becoming a middle-income economy. In the near future, we are anticipating a surge in consumption.

With rising incomes and a young population in India more willing to spend, we see investment opportunities in weddings and festivals. This discretionary spending is creating vast investment potential across various sectors including jewellery, hotels, clothing, luggage, and transportation.

However, if economic data fails to meet market expectations, we anticipate short-term volatility in the India market.

Chinese equities: Attractive valuations and a gradual recovery in earnings

Raymond Ma, CIO - Hong Kong and China, Asia (excluding Japan) Regional Equity team

China’s equity market presents an extremely attractive valuation opportunity. Chinese stocks are priced appealingly compared to both historical averages and developed markets.

We anticipate a gradual recovery in earnings, which will serve as an extra layer for growth. Ongoing stimulus measures, we believe, will be supportive of the economy and domestic demand will recover.

We favour Chinese companies that already have a leadership position and are well-placed to expand overseas. These companies have cost advantages stemming from economies of scale in the domestic market. This ultimately benefits shareholders.

We believe benefits are broad based, particularly among companies in e-commerce, online gaming, white goods and industrials, which have the potential and capability to expand overseas. We believe they will benefit from the recovery in domestic demand and their expansion plans into overseas markets.

We also see investment opportunities are in companies with strong cash flows that have significant potential for dividend growth and share buybacks, supported by favourable policies. We believe investors can benefit from rising shareholder returns.

We have also observed the Chinese government's recent commitment to reviving growth following the announcement of a comprehensive policy package. The effective and adequate deployment of this policy support is crucial, as it may influence the pace of economic recovery. We believe it will take time for these policies to impact the real economy.

Japanese equities: Macroeconomic shift toward positive growth continues

Tadao Minaguchi, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Portfolio Manager for Japanese Equity Advantage strategy

While Japanese equity markets staged a significant rally in 2024, with the TOPIX Price index finally surpassing its previous peak from the 1989 asset bubble era, we have also observed corrections.

This was initially triggered by a monetary policy pivot in both Japan and the US during the summer, which changed the direction of the Japanese yen from significant depreciation, hitting a 38-year low, to appreciation. Additionally, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party was unexpectedly defeated in the autumn general election, causing political uncertainties.

Despite this, we believe that Japan’s exit from the extraordinary deflationary situation will continue. Economic indicators have been pointing to a transition from domestic price and wage stagnation to a more stable economic environment, with positive growth prospects.

This will allow the Bank of Japan to carry on the long-awaited monetary policy normalisation. More importantly, the ongoing corporate governance reform is a secular trend in Japan, with more and more companies demonstrating a commitment to improving capital efficiency and shareholder returns. These improving fundamental factors should underpin Japanese equity performance.

In this context, bottom-up stock picking is key, in our opinion. To capitalise on these structural changes evolving in Japan, investors should broaden their stock search beyond top-down macro or theme play, which dominated the market for the last several years, and identify which company can benefit the most.

ETFs: Equal weight ETFs have been seeing a surge in demand

Chris Mellor, Head of EMEA ETF Equity Product Management

We expect demand for ETFs to continue to grow in 2025. US and global equity exposures have dominated equity ETF usage for many years.

This has been helped by the outperformance of the US equity market and the growth in the use of global exposures as a one-stop-shop for investors.

Mega cap tech has been the dominant driver of equity returns in recent years, leading to increased market concentration (35% of the weight in the S&P 500 is in just ten stocks!).

There are signs that the market is beginning to broaden out once again, with equal weight ETFs seeing a surge in demand. That is likely to continue. Ongoing monetary loosening may also help to drive a revival in the growth oriented thematic ETF space. This was hit hard by higher rates in 2022.

The key risks for ETFs are driven by the underlying assets to which they are exposed. As such, the risk of a more difficult economic outlook could weigh on equity markets and the ETFs exposed to them.