Don't give up on handbags and gladrags quite yet.
Despite the wealth destruction wrought by the financial crisis, the luxury goods industry has been one of the best performing sectors since the global stock market trough in 2009.
The MSCI Consumer Durables & Apparel index - mostly luxury companies - powered to a 200 per cent gain in 2009-13, outpacing the MSCI World Index's 130 per cent rise over the period (see first chart below).
The sterling performance was largely caused by ravenous demand for Gucci handbags, Hermes scarves or Manolo Blahnik shoes in the developing world, which recovered its zip far more quickly than the west and where the rising middle and upper classes felt no compunction about splashing out on glamourous brands.
The wheels have come off the luxury car this year, as a marked slowdown in emerging markets has weighed on demand. China's crackdown on official corruption and a shift in attitudes towards conspicuous consumption has had a particularly chilling impact on what was once the powerhouse of luxury good sales.
As a result the MSCI Consumer Durables gauge has trod water in 2014 and a string of luxury groups have mournfully warned of falling sales and profits, even as global stock markets have on the whole continued to gain (see second chart below).
But HSBC's analysts Robert Parkes and Peter Sullivan now see some reason for optimism, as valuations have fallen close to a decade low with fund allocations to the sector slumping, even as the earnings outlook is brightening somewhat.
Investors have become increasingly pessimistic about prospects for the sector over the past year, as indicated by the sharp fall in mutual fund holdings, and now there are signs that relative earnings revisions are turning positive.
The analysts estimate that the average mutual fund in HSBC's database was 200 basis points overweight in 2013 but is now on average 50 bp underweight. This could snap back quickly if there are signs that the current gloom towards luxury is overdone.
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