Bet on Quality Stocks & Corporate Debt

The global market’s rocky ride has created a solid stock picking environment, but diversify across asset classes to protect your portfolio, advised George Boubouras, head of investment strategy and consulting at UBS Wealth Management.

“This short term volatility that we are seeing at the moment will persist some time into the future, into the September quarter, but there is great value out there,” he said on CNBC’s Protect Your Wealth.

Quality large caps in Australia have become deeply discounted, he said. Those on his radar included global miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto , Centennial Coal, Westfarmers and supermarket chain Woolworths.

Boubouras also found the S&P 500 particularly cheap, and liked names such as Procter & Gamble , Unilever , Google and Schlumberger , as he explained: “Versus cash in offshore, particularly in North America, the dividend yield and earnings yield look very, very robust.”

Among other asset classes, investment-grade corporate bonds, both offshore and onshore, formed part of his strategy of diversification to cushion against volatility.

The S&P 500 had its worst performance in May since 1962, he noted, however, bonds outperformed equities during the period, reflecting the importance of diversification.

While the euro-zone debt crisis and prospect of further tightening in China have pushed nervous investors to take money off the table, Boubouras warned against such a move.

“If you've a long-only portfolio, now's the time not to be selling quality in that portfolio because you're just discounting it,” he said.

Market Views — Bull & Bear:

• Aussie to Stay Under Pressure for Awhile: Charts
• 13 Stocks We're Shorting: Market Pros
• Gold's 'Real Move' to $7,000 Coming: Asset Manager
• Fears Overdone, Double-Dip Unlikely: Strategist

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Catch "Protect Your Wealth" on CNBC's Asia Pacific network every Tuesday on "CNBC's Cash Flow," Wednesday on "Asia Squawk Box" and Thursday on "Capital Connection."