Banking on equities in Asia

RISING US interest rates were the Sword Of Damocles for Asian equities in 2015 - an ever-present threat hanging over equity markets which had the ability to swing seasoned investors' emotions from greed to fear with little more than a nuanced message from the US Federal Reserve chairwoman, Janet Yellen.

The Chinese authorities also gave us all a gentle reminder that trying to manipulate "free" market mechanisms (their domestic equity market) to promote domestic growth is a high-risk strategy laced with endless complexities and likely to end with more unintended losers than intended winners.

These two events coupled w…