Julius Baer, the Swiss private bank, will launch its Japan Stock Fund in the UK, indicating that the bank is taking a positive view on the future of the Japanese post-recession economy.

The fund will give investors access to two investment approaches. The first approach, named Quant Pool, has a value nature, screening 1,100 stocks in the MSCI Japan Index with a proprietary quant model to identify up to 100 of what they consider the most attractive stocks.

The second approach, called Diamond Pool, is a portfolio of 20 to 30 companies with leading positions either domestically or abroad.

“Japan is out of recession and has recently achieved positive growth. With more stable currency markets and cheaper production costs the Japanese equity markets moved from the red into the black,” said Dirk Kubisch, product specialist equities at Julius Baer.

“Additionally, rising exports are giving a fillip to the market. With this impetus, the market has sound chances of outperforming the MSCI World Index in the first half of an upswing,” he added.

As of 9 September 2009, the fund has delivered year-to-year returns at 16.13 per cent and has assets under management of €140 million ($204 million).

Julius Baer’s total client assets amounted to 367 billion SFr ($354 billion) at the end of June 2009, with assets under management accounting for 299 billion SFr.