EMEA ultra-high net worth investors remain optimistic about global markets - The Peninsula Qatar

EMEA ultra-high net worth investors remain optimistic about global markets - The Peninsula Qatar:

Many EMEA ultra-high net worth investors (39 percent) continue to believe equities will be the best performing asset class over the next 12 months, according to J.P. Morgan’s Spring Private Client Survey. Despite on-going global uncertainty, investor sentiment has remained largely unchanged since the winter Private Client Surveyi, but with increased volatility expectations for 2019, many investors are now beginning to adopt a more defensive investment approach. 

A third of the ultra-high net worth clients surveyed (33 percent) are investing in higher-quality assets to help them to position their portfolios more defensively, whilst a quarter of investors (24 percent) are moving from heavily cyclical sectors to focus on long-term investment opportunities in industries such as healthcare and technology. A further fifth (20 percent) are moving to invest in actively defensive sectors such as utilities, real estate and telecoms.

“Like many of the ultra-high net worth clients we surveyed we’re also mostly positive on equities for 2019, which is reflected in our overweight allocation of equities in managed portfolios,” said Tara Smyth (pictured), Head of the Middle East and North Africa m