Global, regional growth prospects remain intact despite global headwinds

0

Teh says Public Mutual maintains its positive view on the markets but pointed out that greater market volatility is still expected.

PETALING JAYA: Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd (Public Mutual) maintained its positive view on the markets but pointed out that greater market volatility is still expected.

In a statement yesterday, Public Mutual, an investment management company under the OCBC Group, highlighted that global markets could be less aggressive this year as volatility in the global markets continue.

Commenting on the second half of 2018 (2H18) market outlook, chief executive officer and executive director of Pacific Mutual, Teh Chi-cheun, said: “Pacific Mutual remains positive on global markets although we are still less aggressive than last year, as we expect the volatility in global markets to continue.”

Teh added, “Global and regional growth prospects remain intact despite global headwinds from the risk of a trade war and also higher US interest rates.

“Regional growth prospect is expected to be better than that of developed economies as we now see synchronised global growth has stopped with major economies such as Europe, China and Japan showing moderating economic data.”

Teh continued, “Domestically, our view is ‘constructive’. The implementation of new government policies and the redistribution of asset and management talent may cause some volatility in equity markets. We are looking beyond these short-term concerns and are focussed at Malaysia’s long-term growth which remains fundamentally intact.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Mutual announced income distributions amounting to RM5.7 million for investors of six of its funds.

The company declared annual income distributions of 2.5 sen per unit for Pacific Millennium Fund; three sen per unit for Pacific Recovery Fund; and three sen per unit for Pacific SELECT Balance Fund.

The company also declared quarterly distribution of 0.4 sen per unit for Pacific Cash Fund. In addition, monthly distributions were declared for Pacific Cash Deposit Fund at 0.3 sen per unit and Pacific OCBC Cash Fund at 0.25 sen per unit for the month of June 2018.