In Asia retail investors of all wealth levels and age groups have become more conservative in 2016 compared to 2015, a survey for the next Cerulli Report «Asian Wealth Management 2016» shows.
Asia ex-Japan retail investors have, due to unsettled market conditions, become less patient in their investment horizons. The Cerulli survey reveals the proportion of respondents with an investment horizon of three years or less rose just over 48 percent in 2016, from the 39 percent seen in the 2015 survey.
According to the report by the global analytics firm generally, Asia ex-Japan investors have higher cash holdings in 2016 compared to last year.
Meanwhile, the shift from other asset classes to alternatives was muted for the past year. The survey reveals China is the only country that showed a more than one percentage-point uptick in holdings in the asset class between the 2015 and 2016 surveys.
Fund Holdings Diluted
Cerulli notes however that alternative products in China are unlike those available in Singapore, for example. In China, alternatives tend to be in the form of structured products, whereas in Singapore, they are often more conventional liquid alternative funds. Cerulli notes that allocations to alternatives in Singapore remained steady over the period, helped by their availability to lower-wealth-tier investors.
With the exception of India, investors in other Asian markets also pared down their exposure to unit trusts, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
Indian investors appeared to put more money in managed funds at the expense of investment properties. Hong Kong investors also reduced their exposure to investment properties as prices have been falling steeply in recent years, in favour of directly held bond investments.
