AXA's Peirson: Forget the euro crisis - equities will rise in 2012

Equities are likely to post gains in 2012 whatever the outcome of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, according to Richard Peirson, manager of the £347m AXA Framlington Managed Balanced fund.

“I think we will see equities end the year higher almost regardless of what happens in Europe with the debt crisis. I think we see good value in equities, and the converse of that is I am pretty cautious about bonds,” Peirson said. The “extraordinarily good” company results seen in 2011 were obscured by investors' fears of a eurozone recession this year as well as the possibility of a concerted slowdown in China, he added. But the manager said he is now much more confident of another year of 8% growth in China, pointing to cooling inflation pressures and a slowly deflating property bu...