Gartmore - Asia Pacific markets still attractive, despite strong gains

Jan de Bruijn is Gartmore's new Head of Asian Equities and manager of the £108m Gartmore Pacific Opportunities Fund.

"We continue to be positive on the outlook for Asia, even though the outlook for the world's economies remains very uncertain. While Asia would not be able to completely avoid the knock-on effects of any further downturn in the world economy, we believe that Asia's economies will continue to perform well on a relative basis.

"Asia had its own crisis in 1997 - 1998 but the region emerged stronger from a fiscal and debt perspective.  As a result, Asia is now in a position to insulate itself to a certain degree from any further global downturn.

"The MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan Index gained 71% last year, but Asian markets are still not expensive and earnings forecasts remain attractive. As a result, we continue to identify and invest in a large number of attractive opportunities in the region.

"Furthermore, as the global economy recovers over the next few years, we believe that Asia will continue to be able to leverage on this growth. This, together with the ongoing shift in global economic power to emerging countries, means that Asia's fundamentals will strengthen further. In time, this will lead to higher P/E multiples. Therefore, we think that 2010 will be a good year for investors to gain an exposure to a growth story set to span the next decade or so."