Recovery potential in Asian market

By James Thorneley The Asian portion of Premium Pacific Income split cap trust is likely to be biased towards Hong Kong financials. Richard Muckart, who managed the equities portion of the trust, believes financials will be attractive, depending on US interest rates. Muckart said: "The Hong Kong market has priced in US rates peaking at 7%. At the moment banks' margins are blurred but if rates peak at 7% there will be more transparency with the cost of debt also falling." If US interest rates do peak at 7%, he expects GDP growth in Asia to be 5% in 2000 while being only 2.5% in the US and...