S-E Asia stocks could lag North Asia next year

ASIAN investors should look for businesses that will benefit from a shift towards recovery in developed economies in 2014, analysts at Goldman Sachs and UBS said as they gave their outlooks for the year ahead.

South-east Asian equities will underperform North Asia on a combination of trimmed earnings expectations and relatively rich valuations, Goldman Sachs said.

"We think returns will largely be driven by earnings growth as opposed to valuation expansion, except perhaps in the case of China," said Timothy Moe, Goldman's chief Asia Pacific strategist.