Despite fears of a recession, Japanese corporate fundamentals are robust and Japanese equities provide a compelling developed-market investment, writes Matt Mack

Tony Johnson of RBC Dexia Investor Services analyses the phenomenal rise of the Ucits market and the challenges and opportunities this creates for promoters, distributors and service providers

With spreads so wide, now may be the time to start looking for potential opportunities in the high yield bond market, writes Ceri Jone

Most investors agree on what constitutes a developed market but the picture can become more hazy when it comes to emerging and frontier markets. Frontier markets carry higher levels of risk, but can also offer very high returns. A key tool for investors to use as they approach the Frontier markets is a transparent and codified system for country classification

A structuring team that can negotiate with the banks and advise the clients is vital if fund managers are not to be restricted in their asset management, writes Martin Steward

“Markets continue to be very weak. The financial crisis is worsening following Fannie and Freddie Mac bailouts and Lehman bankruptcy. Last inflation numbers both in the US and Europe show a peak in the inflation rates in July. We kept our pretty conservative portfolio, substituting Amex Gemar emerging markets absolute return bond fund with a bigger exposure to European bonds (through the Axa WF). We also added BlackRock Euro Markets fund because of its good track record.”

“During August the downwards trend of the oil price continued driven by the first signs of a cooling global economy. Accordingly, the worldwide demand in oil decreased significantly and news of increasing oil inventories are spreading. Another important reason for the sinking oil price seems to be the speculative investment shift from long to short positions at most of the international commodity exchanges. We prefer to wait and observe until the end of the year if the ongoing, sometimes exaggerated trends in the market can really persist and therefore made only minor changes to our portfolio.”

“Earlier in the year, many investors backed the emerging market decoupling story as growth in the region remained strong despite the western downturn. More recently emerging markets as a region has underperformed as confidence in the independent growth story cooled. We now believe emerging markets offer investor value and have sold the absolute return JPM Emerging Market Alpha, which has performed well during the correction, switching to Resolution Hexam Global Emerging Markets allowing us to capture more market beta. We still believe that markets will remain volatile and a asset allocation and rotation will be vital.”