AMP bullish about equities

By Rob Hosking

Friday 1st February 2002

Global investment markets are starting to grow again, according to AMP Henderson Global.

The company's annual result shows a marked turnaround in global equities for the December quarter, while for the year the company's active and passive global funds were down more than 10%.

The company's strong returns though were in the New Zealand sharemarket, where its Strategic Equity Growth Fund showed a 32% return for the year - well above the NZSE's 13.3%.

And despite the market upheavals of 2001, the company's total funds under management grew from $9.8 billion to $11 billion.

The market had seen the final unwinding of the great bull market of the 1990s, managing director Catherine Savage said.

AMP has shifted the weighting of its investments away from cash and into global equities in expectation of a better year internationally than 2001. The company is also picking a small but significant rise in the New Zealand currency.

The coming 12 months were likely to be "normal" rather than a high growth period, head of strategy Paul Dyer said.

Conditions for a global upturn were there, he said. Internationally, real interest rates were virtually at zero - but there were still some concerns.

"Some of the US company reporting is still disappointing. There is no doubt those low interest rates will revive the US economy - the question is when." Broadly, the US market prices were seen as neutral, on a "fair value" evaluation, he said

Alliance Capital Management topped the quarterly Mercer survey of managed funds with a return of 9.4%. All 13 funds in the survey achieved positive returns of 4.5% or better.

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