Since the 2008 financial crisis global stock markets have recovered their losses and generated gains for investors. However, as the free flow of cash driving the market through stimulus programs dries up and the sheer lack of value available at stock entry level, investors are becoming cautious on US based stocks and are beginning to fatten alternative markets throughout Europe and China.
Speaking with investors in Hong Kong, Evanson Asset Management’s Director of Global Research, Jonathan Hewitt shared his thoughts on where investors could continue to capture value from equities.
“With US stocks riding the bull to extreme levels we have been forced to identify value based opportunities in other regions. If we analyze the Chinese market we can see that they too are current overvalued at the entry point, around 21% overvalued on average. Likewise German equities have soared to around 16% above what we consider a fair price for our investors.”
“However what we see in Europe at present is a continued stimulus support from the European Central Bank as they attempt to kick-start laboring economies throughout the region. In this case we have positioned many of our investors into a number of stocks that we consider will benefit the most from the ECB’s monetary policy.”
As a value based investment management firm, Evanson Asset Management’s investment policy dictates that “companies that have sufficient capital stability and business management prowess to weather short-term vulnerabilities that arise from events such as the ongoing negotiations over the potential debt default by Greece”, continued Mr. Hewitt.
“Without exposing out clients to unnecessary risk, we believe in a number of opportunities that have compound benefits to their operations. Take Unilever Plc (UL) as an example. Not only does their portfolio of businesses perform strongly during times of market stress, they have the added advantage of a weaker home currency in respect of the US Dollar, a region they continue to perform strongly.”