With global disruptions continuing in 2017, wealthy investors should look at placing their money in countries and sectors that offer long-term growth and value, according to a leading Islamic financial institution.

The UAE-based Emirates Islamic also said that gold continues to be a safe bet in the current environment, while sharing its investment outlook for 2017 with its wealth management clients at events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai titled ‘Dealing with Global Disruptors – Investment Outlook for 2017’. 

Presented by Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for Emirates NBD, the investment outlook focused on global highlights during 2016, as well as investment areas, trends, digital disruptions and observations for the upcoming year.

Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Chief Executive Officer, Emirates Islamic said: “Wealth Management is one of the key pillars of the banking proposition at Emirates Islamic, and we aim to provide personalised wealth advisory services to our clients through a comprehensive platform, backed by in-depth knowledge in Islamic finance and extensive expertise in local and regional investments. The continued collaboration with global Islamic finance solutions providers also empowers Emirates Islamic to provide additional value to clients, and enables us to move closer to our goal of becoming the preferred provider of Shari’a compliant wealth management solutions in the region.”

Dugan’s presentation underlined that there have been several disruptions to the global economy during the last year, thereby creating challenges to perceived conventional wisdom. 

Citing events such as Brexit, US President Donald Trump’s victory, the rise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the launch of the Tesla Car as ‘Global Disruptors,’ Dugan said: “These political and technological events were major surprises to global financial markets, and have triggered significant shifts in the valuations of currencies and asset classes. More importantly, they have forced investors around the globe to rethink their long-term investment strategies.”

Explaining that the disruptions to conventional wisdom would most likely continue through 2017, Dugan also offered pointers on what this means for investments across various asset classes: “Given the ongoing volatile global economic and political environment, it is important to invest in countries and sectors that offer long term growth and value. We believe for example, that sectors like technology and healthcare and countries like India offer relative value in current environment. As a general principle, investments should focus on preserving capital, while at the same time achieving reasonable profit levels.”

“Gold continues to play an important role for us. The yellow metal price has continued to deliver returns and remains a key diversification component for investment portfolios.” he added.

The investment outlook event was in keeping with Emirates Islamic’s vision to be a leading Islamic bank in the region.