BlackRock Investment Management, one of world’s biggest fund management entities, present their opinion for “PB” only.
“Bad times are not about to end. This is a recession which will be long and flat rather than short and deep. Bad news about economy will come for the next two, three or maybe four quarters. The vital issue is to what extent these elements are discounted in present stock prices. In many cases, we have to do with extreme evaluations. The price/income index is a one-digit number on many markets. On some of them, the level is lower than in the last 15-20 years. Even if profits fall by 20-30 percent, it will still be a one-digit number. This means that the market has to a big extent already discounted the upcoming slowdown. Even if a year passes before we hear good news about the economy, it does not mean that stock markets will fall before”, Richard Urwin, BlackRock Investment Management chief economist said.
In his opinion, it makes sense to buy shares now.
“At the end of next year, stock markets will be higher than today. To investors with a long-investment horizon, it is not a bad idea to buy shares now. But if you are afraid that you will see a loss in six months, don’t do this”, Richard Urwin said.
BlackRock has one of world’s biggest teams monitoring emerging markets. Poland is well evaluated by its specialists.
“We’ve been an active investor on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in recent years and this is not going to change. We outweigh Poland in BGF Emerging Europe portfolio presently. We have 14 percent of the portfolio here while the maximal level is 16 percent”, Richard Urwin said.
There are rumors that some financial institutions will withdraw from Poland. BlackRock, however, has recently launched its office.
“We believe in the Polish market and we want to support clients especially,
when the situation is not very good”, Aneta Podyma, BlackRock Poland director
explained.