ING Investment Management

To those who have seen headlines over new record highs in equity markets or who mainly judge equity market valuations on the back of price-earnings or earnings yields it might sound strange to argue that equities are attractive...

By ousting President Morsi the Egyptian army prevented a violent climax in the battle between opponents and supporters of the president. In the past year, the Morsi administration has not been able to make any progress in solving the huge economic and social problems in the country.

François Hollande, the French President, recently called for action against the strong euro, stating that the economy could end up with an exchange rate “out of line with the fundamentals”. Although plausible, exchange rates are probably “out of line with the fundamentals” most of the time...

From a purely dividend yield perspective, Western investors could diversify into emerging markets where dividend growth is supported by low levels of company debt coupled and high profitability.

Past results do not guarantee future performance. However, they certainly set the tone for predictions of it. A year ago, the outlook statements for this year’s equity performance were rather cautious, with forecasters extrapolating the poor trend of 2011. However, 2012 proved to be a good year and, unsurprisingly, the broker consensus is positive for 2013. Is this justified?