Worst may not be over for Asian mkts: SCB

Asian markets were trading weak. China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.74% or 50.54 points at 2,859.76. Japan's Nikkei plunged 1.54% or 209.50 points at 13,393.81. Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.57% or 361.42 points at 22,726.30. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted slipped 1.98% or 146.07 points at 7,222.01. Singapore's Straits Times declined 1.78% or 52.93 points at 2,924.98. South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 1.69% or 27.45 points at 1,598.69.

Lim Say Boon, Chief Investment Strategist for Group Wealth Management at Standard Chartered Bank feels that the rebound in the markets, in a sense was not all surprising but now is the payback time. "For many months we have been bearish and skeptical about the rebound; we have seen people say March to May-that the worst is over, we have been skeptics of this simply because the credit market problems are so large. Same thing here, we saw some expressions of optimism over a last few days that the worst might be over - we do not believe it."

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Lim Say Boon:

Q: Most of Asia has sold off a percent and a half today but we have seen about 5%-5.5% in the previous four trading sessions. The sell offs have not been that vicious in the last few weeks although they are still correlated to the US. Have some of these markets just at such compelling valuations that close to bottom or near bottom formations have been seen?

A: I think that the rebound of last few days has pretty much a technically inspired rebound, we have seen predictable support levels on the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) or countries world Index has seen fairly predictable technical support levels for the US financials. So the rebound in a sense was not all that surprising but this is payback time as you can see from the screens in front of us.

We have got a sea of red - right throughout the region particularly nasty in Australia where the National Australia Bank has set aside another USD 800 million for possible losses on collateralised debt obligations (CDOs).

For many months we have been bearish and skeptical about the rebound; we have seen people say March to May-that the worst is over, we have been skeptics of this simply because the credit market problems are so large. Same thing here, we saw some expressions of optimism over a last few days that the worst might be over, we do not believe it.