Contrary to popular opinion, Asian investors are not all punters who are willing to bet their life savings on the latest hottest stock tip. In fact, the majority have traditionally taken a conservative view, preferring to lock their money into low-risk, low-yield bank deposits.

However, the banking crisis in the late 1990s shook their confidence in those plain vanilla deposits and they have cautiously started to broaden their investment horizons, both locally and abroad.