ABN Amro Private Banking is bullish on sectors such as speciality chemicals firms, healthcare and environmental testing, services that it says are benefiting from rising demand from consumers in developing economies.

The Dutch private bank said in its fourth-quarter commentary that it recommended firms such as DSM and Symrise (speciality chemicals businesses), Fresenius Medical Care, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Abbott Laboratories (healthcare services), and SGS, Intertek, Bureau Veritas and Thermo Fisher Scientific (environmental testing).

Among other global sectors that are expected to be in demand, ABN Amro Private Banking said, are Semcorp Marine, Keppel and Vopak, which are businesses that are working in the oil industry and its infrastructure. These businesses are expected to benefit from the heightened focus on safety and environmental standards following the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the bank said.

“We are seeing growing numbers of discerning consumers in developing countries fuel demand for higher quality products and services from both regional and multinational companies - across a range of consumer related sectors,” said Didier Duret, chief investment officer of ABN Amro Private Banking.

The report takes a cautiously optimistic stance on the prospects of the world economy, downplaying the risk of a double-dip recession.

ABN Amro Private Banking also recommends that investors consider holding assets such as low grade corporate bonds and high yield bonds, as well as equities providing strong dividends. It also sees renewed upside in commodities.

“Central bank policies are creating a strong incentive for investors to actively seek out risk and yield,” said Mr Duret. “We are recommending active diversification, to mitigate the impact of continued low interest rates,” he added.

In its note on overall asset allocation strategy, the private bank said it was moving to an even more marked "overweight" stance on emerging markets due to their strong economic growth. "This policy fine-tuning should make medium-term growth more sustainable, and these prospects argue for an upgrade for China (and thereby Asia) from neutral to overweight (despite short-term market risks). In Latin America, superior earnings growth, reasonable valuation levels and a solid financial sector validate our positive stance," it said.

ABN Amro Private Banking is also overweight European companies, a position that it said was justified as many firms' earnings are skewed towards the performance of emerging market economies.

ABN Amro Private Banking is the international wealth-management division of ABN AMRO Bank with €150 billion (around $197 billion) of assets under management, according to the latest published data.