China’s central bank said it will ensure sufficient liquidity to sustain economic growth, damping speculation regulators may seek to restrain credit after new loans jumped sixfold to a record in March.

There will still be bargain hunting in the US and Europe, but the major sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the Middle East, China and the rest of Asia are likely to place their massive capital and income in local and regional quoted and private companies in the next few years.

The biggest SWF is the United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with estimated assets of US$850 billion, followed by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (US$431 billion), China's Safe Investment Company (US$311 billion) and Norway's state fund (US$305 billion).

Singapore's GIC with an estimated US$220 billion in assets, and Temasek with US$85 billion, are the sixth and the 10th largest, respectively.

Unlike other institutional investors such as pension plans, sovereign wealth funds do not generally have future liabilities to pay out to pensioners. They also do not have external investors who decide to withdraw at short notice, notes Preqin. As a result, they have long-term investment horizons and are often relatively free to adopt more risky investment strategies.