Regular readers of this website will recall that we coined the acronym BLANKs in 2008 to refer to a group of extreme frontier market economies in Asia which have considerable development potential, but are being constrained by highly unusual or adverse political or geopolitical conditions. These are Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Afghanistan, and North Korea. All… [Read more]
Risk assets plummeted on August 4 and 5, with the path forward very much dependent upon whether eurozone policymakers get serious about saving the single-currency monster they have created. On August 4, a seemingly non-chalant ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet casually brushed aside questions over whether ECB bond market purchases would be stepped up to alleviate… [Read more]
In Business Monitor Online and Emerging Markets Monitor this week, we have an exclusive interview with Arunma Oteh, the director of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission, who discussed significant initiatives to improve Nigeria’s capital markets. The SEC is striving to create markets that are more transparent, sophisticated, and credible. Among other things, we outline… [Read more]
BMI’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team expects to see further gains for Qatari stocks for the following reasons: Qatar is the most politically stable country in MENA. So far no signs of unrest have been recorded since the start of 2011. Furthermore, with countries like Bahrain, Yemen and even Oman being strongly affected… [Read more]
A couple of years ago, I coined the acronym BLANKs to describe a group of Asian economies which have considerable development potential, but are being constrained by highly esoteric political or geopolitical problems. The countries in question are Burma (officially called Myanmar), Laos, Afghanistan, and North Korea. At the time, I cautioned that despite their… [Read more]
Emerging Market (EM) equities are looking good at the moment, there is no doubt about it, and as regular readers of Riskwatchdog will already know, I am particularly bullish towards Polish, Turkish and Abu Dhabi stocks. But now looking elsewhere for the next big thing, I turn my attention to Latin America, identifying Peru as… [Read more]
Terry Alexander is back on the Business Monitor Podcast this week to speak about the recent performance in global equities. Since our very first podcast he has reiterated his bullish stance on stocks, a view which, almost five months later, still remains unshaken. Both the technical and fundamental picture remains conducive of further gains for… [Read more]
