Pneumonia is like a constant fog lying on the city, says Brad Aham, senior portfolio manager of Asian equities at State Street Global Advisors. But it is too early to tell whether the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) will have a permanent impact.
Current events have not had an unusually large effect on his job, however. With a global portfolio in emerging markets, Mr Aham and his colleagues are used to some hairy situations.
'Investing has always been difficult. Sars is a very bad situation right now in Hong Kong but for our emerging markets portfolio a lot of our exposure is in the bigger Chinese companies. It is not clear that Sars has a direct and immediate impact on them other than sentiment and the equity-risk premium that might be applied,' he said.
'As a team we look at valuations and opportunities that are available globally. Sars is a big problem here, but look at Israel, for example, they are in a tough part of the world. In Latin America, in the past few years there was Argentina defaulting and Brazil going through a contentious election which had a big impact on the currency. Look at South Africa and the black empowerment issue. As an equity investor, there are always concerns and risks.'
Mr Aham is part of State Street's global emerging markets team based in Boston, Paris and Hong Kong that collectively manages about US$1.2 billion. He has specific responsibility for South Korea, with US$250 million under management, and Taiwan (US$150 million) and shared oversight of China (US$110 million).
The team takes a slow and steady stance, suiting its main clients, which are big institutions and pension funds. Fund managers communicate daily via e-mail and hold a weekly teleconference, combining a qualitative and quantitative approach.