Looking ahead, the French election featured strongly in the calendar for the coming months, he said.
Markets would also focus on when the next interest rate rise was expected in the United States market. The odds for a move at the June meeting were 63% at present.
Markets usually shrugged off the first few rate hikes but, from there on, they could become more of a handbrake, he said.
In the US, there would need to be a better showing on tax reform than for the Obamacare repeal.
''As far as the northern hemisphere summer approaches, we are moving closer to a seasonally weak period where returns tend to be a little lower and volatility a little higher.''
April was a historically one of the best months of the year for the Standard & Poor's 500 - with an average return of 1.5% since 1950 - and only beaten by November and December. However, the June quarter as a whole had the lowest proportion of positive returns at 59%, behind the three other quarters of the year on 67%, Mr Timms said.
In recent months clear evidence had been seen of a synchronised improvement in global activity levels and there was a cyclical rebound that could keep risk assets buoyant over the medium term. Companies to benefit from a cyclical upturn included James Hardie (Australia), Lend Lease (Australia), Mainfreight (New Zealand) and Suncor (US).
•In the latest reporting season in New Zealand and Australia, many companies reported results for the six months to December 31. Overall, results were generally solid, although somewhat lacklustre on both sides of the Tasman. Numerous bright spots emerged from the reporting season. The five companies delivering strong results and providing further confidence in Craigs' positive investment cases were AGL Energy, CSL Ltd, Tourism Holdings, Trade Me and Transurban.
•In the near term, the French election was a key event markets would be watching.
Mr Timms said investors should expect some nervousness to emerge before then and markets would probably be relieved should one of the mainstream candidates win. Should far-right politician Marine Le Pen pull off a surprise victory, there would probably be significant volatility across markets.
''We remain cautious on Europe generally, partly due to the ongoing political uncertainty that will likely weigh on the region, but also due to a very fragile banking system. Our preference is to target specific companies we believe will perform well despite any challenges for the broader region.''
Those companies were L'Oreal, Nestle and Roche.
•The New Zealand election was six months away and Mr Timms said he expected political uncertainty to grow in coming months, reflecting the higher potential for a change of government on September 23.
It was highly likely National would emerge as the most popular party, ahead of the combined Labour-Green bloc. However, Prime Minister Bill English might well have to consider working with New Zealand First and its leader, Winston Peters.
Locally listed companies believed to be ''election proof'' included Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Fonterra, Tourism Holdings, Restaurant Brands and Xero.
•FMC Group shares had performed ''astonishingly well'' as evidence accumulated the company's core agricultural chemicals business was beginning to improve from trough-like levels of profitability.
Also, the company had announced a transformational deal to acquire a portion of DuPont's agricultural chemicals business on highly favourable terms.
FMC had snared a bargain with the acquisition. Two of the largest chemical companies worldwide, DuPont and Dow Chemicals, were seeking to merge, which had forced them to divest not only a portion of the combined company's agricultural chemicals business but also key research and development capabilities. Dow and DuPont had been forced to quickly divest those assets in order to win merger approvals and FMC had exploited the situation, Mr Timms said.
''We think the broader market has not yet come to appreciate just how transformational this deal is for FMC or just how cheaply FMC has been able to purchase these assets.''
•After the strong rally in cyclical shares and higher-risk companies at the end of last year, Craigs' believed a strong case could be made for trading up in quality, especially into high-quality businesses which were not trading at premiums at historical levels.
Craigs recently initiated coverage on Ecolab, one of the world's most respected and consistent companies with an overweight view and core classification.
•Craigs remained positive about the Japanese market, which, along with the US, was one of its preferred global regions. Valuations looked ''reasonable'' and the market was trading at a discount to the average of the past 15 years, making Japanese equities more appealing than other markets'.
The firm's favoured market exposure was the Wisdom Tree Japan Hedged Equity Fund, which was listed on the US market and hedged back to US dollars, Mr Timms said.
