Mrs. Chavinda Hanratanakool, Chairwoman of Association of Investment Management Companies (AIMC), stated that the association has conducted surveys on its member companies during the past month regarding their perspective on the investment over the next year.
The survey inquired about the future of the Thai economy based on the direction of interest rate, political stability, and direct international investment, which are essential factors that affect the overall economy’s growth. Some fund managers speculated that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would lower the interest rate again to stimulate the economy’s significant growth.
Overall, the fund managers agree that Thailand is facing infrastructure challenges in economy, household debt, and politics. While these factors are holding back the economy from reaching its potential. Political stability would be the most significant risk factor of all.
As for domestic asset allocation, the fund managers still have an overweight view on domestic investment, emphasizing on bonds, especially the medium to long-term government and private bonds. Furthermore, they also have a neutral view on equities, with focus on the medium to large cap.
Meanwhile, the industry groups that the fund managers have high interest in are the financial institute, medical service, information technology, commerce, recreational tourism, and bank. Regarding alternative investment, the fund managers have a neutral view, with a focus on gold and real estate and infrastructure investment trust.
According to the survey inquiring about the investment type that the fund managers interest over the next one year, they still have their attention on the sustainable investment as they speculate that ThaiESG’s performance in the next one year will not be significantly different from the performance of other funds that have different investment policy. However, in the long term, ThaiESG is likely to generate returns slightly better than conventional funds.
Regarding sustainable investment, the industry groups that the fund managers are interested in show similarity to the domestic allocation previously mentioned. The fund managers are aiming to launch an international sustainability fund in the form of feeder fund (ESG FIF) to expand their offering to Thai investors.
