GCC investors are looking to regional stock markets to diversify investment portfolios and concentrating less on real estate.

That is the view of ING Investment Management who has been visiting leading clients in Bahrain over the past two days, said a report in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

ING's chief investment officer Farah Foustok and head of distribution Middle East Pieter Hendriks have been holding meetings with existing and prospective clients and banks and institutions in a series of meetings to outline their strategy and listen to customers comments.

'Local investors, as well as our Asian and European customers, are showing a far greater interest in the GCC stock markets,' said Hendriks.

'In the past the story about the Middle East was all about oil but it is now being seen as an emerging market with diversifying economies and exceptional growth.

'Local investors used to concentrate on real estate, and real estate is still important, but now people are putting emphasis on the GCC equity markets,' he said.

'They are diversify the risk in their portfolios by investing in the regional stock markets through mutual funds and are also attracted to the growing fixed income market.'

'In our discussion we have been looking at this trend along with opportunities in hedge funds and the opportunities in emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Latin America,' he said.

'But we service manage the regional market from Dubai and do not just offer global products to clients in the GCC but are finding more and more interest from global clients wanting to invest in the region.

'We are committed to the region and are very bullish about prospects for the future,' he said.

'We advise clients including high net worth families and we take the view that the GCC equity and fixed income markets are looking very strong in the medium to long term.

'This is partly because of the massive investment in infrastructure and the diversification of the economies but also because the growth is likely to be further stimulated by the demographic spread of with a large percentage of the population being young,' he added. - TradeArabia News Service