Singapore investors confident in local investment opportunities, but prefer international stocks: Legg Mason survey
SINGAPORE (Nov 20): Nearly half of Singaporean investors believe their own country presents the best investment opportunities in the near-term, ahead of other popular investment locations such as China and the US.
This is according to asset management firm Legg Mason based on the findings of its Global Investment Survey 2018, which tracks investor sentiment and behavior across 17 markets worldwide.
In a report entitled Rise of the conviction investor: Ethics and the search for outperformance driving trends in 2019, 49% of survey respondents in Singapore viewed their own country as having the best investment opportunities over the next 12 months.
Despite this, the city state’s investors appear to place the most confidence in international stocks (42%) over domestic stocks (30%) as the best investment opportunities over the next 12 months, followed by real estate (27%), alternatives, cash and gold/precious metals (tied at 22% each) and crypto-currencies (20%).
The average investment portfolio in Singapore is mostly made up of cash/cash equivalents (35%), followed by equities, fixed income and real estate property/funds at 25%, 17% and 11%, respectively.
Almost nine in 10 or 88% of Singaporean investors say they own income-producing assets.
While these investors seek an average return of 7.1%, up 0.1% from last year’s Legg Mason survey, they are in fact receiving 5.8% in average returns – which is up 0.6% from last year’s data but still representing a deficit of 1.3%.
Overall investor confidence in Singapore, however, remains divided with just over half (52%) of Singapore respondents saying they are ‘very’ or ‘quite’ confident compared to the global overage of 58%.
The biggest concerns among the city state’s investors are inflation (57%), world/economic instability (54%), and health insurance costs and trade wars between markets tied at 53% each.
Meanwhile, a near-majority (47%) of Singapore respondents perceive market volatility as a positive event, compared to neutral (35%), negative (13%), and a minor 5% who say they are don’t understand enough about market volatility.
