Fund managers expect emerging markets to be a key growth area for clients in 2015, according to a poll at a conference with over 120 managers present.
The poll, taken at Aon Hewitt’s Fund Manager Conference, also found that credit is expected to be the worst performer.
The top performers predicted with, in descending order, scores ranging from 9.2% to 21% were: emerging market equities; US equities; global equities; and multi-asset.
Almost half of the fund managers (47%) expected that investment-grade and high-yield credit would deliver the weakest returns during 2015. This asset class is seeing tighter credit spreads and low gilt yields.
Lennox Hartman, global head of fixed income strategies at Aon Hewitt, says: “With an increasingly uncertain outlook for global markets and a persistently low UK base rate constraining gilt yields, the clear message from the fund managers attending this year’s conference is that to outperform long-term liabilities, institutional investors will need to look beyond domestic assets for positive returns in 2015.”
The poll also showed that fund managers believe that institutional clients will increase allocations to alternative assets including infrastructure, private equity, hedge funds and multi-asset.
©2014 funds europe
