Fund Objective

The Fund's investment objective is to achieve long term capital growth by investing in a focused range of Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) securities, including securities of Asia-Pacific companies which may be listed outside Asia.

View on Past Performance

Asia Pacific markets continued last month's advance in May. Investor sentiment has improved greatly since the Federal Reserve stepped in to stem the crisis at Bear Stearns and forestall a larger global financial crisis. Asian central banks are still maintaining relatively high interest rates, however. This is because of concerns about increasing evidence of inflation - seen most notably recently with a sharp spike in the price of rice.The Hong Kong and Chinese financial markets were not disrupted by the terrible earthquake which hit southwest China and caused tens of thousands of fatalities. Few listed companies were affected and the Chinese government was applauded for quickly undertaking rescue and relief operations.In Korea, we took some profits for the Fund in Samsung Electronics and POSCO while buying into NHN and Mirae Asset Securities. We continued to reduce the Fund's China property exposure by selling some of the holdings in China Overseas Land.

Future Expectations

As in April, economic data from the US continues to point to a US recession. We expect Asia Pacific markets to trade over a broad range in the short term until economic fundamentals can demonstrate that Asia will not slow dramatically in response to a US slowdown.

Fund Details