Among the Asian nations, only India is expected to post worse figures in 1999 than it did in 1998. Equity portfolios as well as economic patterns are slowly beginning to resemble their pre-crisis states. Ho says the number of stocks in his portfolios is concentrated. Many funds have less than 20 names today, half of what they may have contained in earlier times. No new names.
New names are the stuff of bull markets.
A lot of the recovery may be there but is still shaky at best. This is the year that Elisabeth Scott, who manages energy and gold funds for Schroders Investment Management in Hong Kong, thought she might see some of her gold mines and oil companies finally enjoy a bit of a run, since commodity prices are a play on economic growth. Australian resource stocks, a safe haven when the crisis first broke, have been some of the worst performers over recent months. But any hope for a recovery in commodities prices may still be premature. Meanwhile, Mark Mobius at Templeton Emerging Market Funds, who has a slightly longer perspective than many of his peers, is taking a more aggressive stance on resource plays, which he believes are oversold.