According to the survey, the percentage of respondents viewing a recession in the West has dipped from 93% in the previous quarter to 43% currently.
The survey that spans across the Asia ex Japan region also states that RMB continues to widen its role as a settlement currency with banks reporting a steady sequential increase in its use.
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Moreover, the consumer sector, a traditionally defensive sector was rated as a consistent performer reflecting the structural trend of the respondents towards higher consumption and lower savings across the region.
Clive McDonnell, Chief Equity Strategist at Standard Chartered equity research commented, "Our Survey continues to paint a detailed picture of the bottom-up outlook for corporates in Asia ex Japan. In particular, we note the consistent performance of the consumer sectors and the increasing use of the RMB as a settlement currency. We view both trends as structural in nature and investors should continue to position portfolios to take account of these signals."
The corporate optimism in Indonesia remained unchallenged in the latest quarter, while there was marginal deterioration in most other countries in the level of corporate sentiment.
In terms of the outlook for growth in individual counties as well as the sector, technology sector fared poorly.
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By GlobalDataAnd banks appeared conflicted, expecting a significant improvement in the availability of interbank liquidity, yet being less optimistic on net interest margins than in the prior quarter.
"We would focus attention on mid-sized Hong Kong banks that can leverage their China bank licences to extract value from this trend. Another possibility is to increase exposure to companies with RMB streams of revenue and profit as increased RMB use points to structural appreciation pressure on the currency over time," McDonnell further added.
