In an exclusive interview with CNBC's Akiko Fujita, Chris Wood, from the side-lines of the CLSA Investors' Forum in Hong Kong, said that the key driver for markets today is politics and not the central banks.

Wood said that politics has been determining markets for the past 12-18 months.

“In the last 10 years, basically the central banks have been the key driver of markets and that is what you had to pay attention to first and foremost. I would say in the last 12-18 months, the game has changed. The central banks are no longer the key drivers, they are clearly important and(but) the key driver is politics ... the opportunity is that politics is much less predictable than the central banks,” he said.

Talking about the ongoing trade war, he said, “What you have seen in recent months is growing focus on these trade issue but it is not just US, I think in Europe, politics is very important too."

“In the context of what could happen in Italy, Brexit is a sideshow because the developments in Italy could render the whole Brexit debate irrelevant. So the key point is that Italy is a part of the Eurozone whereas UK is not,” he further mentioned.