UBS declares 'buying time' for emerging market stocks

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss Bank UBS urged clients to pile into emerging market stocks on Thursday, declaring it "buying time" for the asset class despite growing concerns about Latin America's biggest economy Brazil.

UBS analysts showed a renewed bullishness for Europe, Middle East and Africa by swinging to an 'overweight' recommendation on the region all the way from 'underweight'.

Individual upgrades included an 'overweight' for central Europe's biggest economy Poland, and for Mexico where the bank said next month's election risks were now priced in and the peso looked cheap. Colombia was lifted to 'neutral' too.

"We remain positive on EM equities based on the UBS macro/market backdrop," UBS' equity strategy team said. "We see this as 'Buying Time'."

However, it did cut Brazil to 'neutral' citing a significant deterioration in the local market's fundamentals, large growth downgrades and widespread political uncertainty ahead of elections there later in the year.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Helen Reid)