Global investors have snapped up a record $21bn worth of Chinese equities this year as robust economic data spurs traders to make larger bets that the reopening rally has further to run.
Foreign buying of Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed shares through Hong Kong’s Stock Connect programme has rocketed to Rmb141bn so far in 2023 — more than double the previous record for the same period in 2021.
The Connect scheme, launched in 2014, allows investors with a presence in Hong Kong to access stock markets on the mainland.
Analysts said the surge in foreign demand for China stocks was driven by positive economic data published after the lunar new year holiday, which had helped reassure some investors who had remained skittish about the country’s growth outlook even after it began dropping President Xi Jinping’s economically disruptive zero-Covid policy.
«It’s spectacular compared to any other year since the launch of the Connect,» said Frank Benzimra, head of Asia equity strategy at Société Générale.
«Some foreign investors took a little bit more time to get clarification on the strength of the economic recovery and the policy support we were going to get this year,» he added. «Economic data and developments in the past week have underscored our positive outlook on China,» said Mark Haefele at UBS.
On Tuesday, rating agency Fitch upgraded its forecast for China’s economic growth this year to 5 per cent, from 4.1 per cent previously.
«When everybody said they’d like to have a portfolio without China, that was the bottom,» said Alison Shimada at Allspring Global Investments. She said Allspring was now «a little overweight» on Chinese equities after increasing its allocation on October 31 — a view that was «not popular at the time».
I think it was a good time to do this as China has had its problems in the past months and it will take a bit of time before they get back on track. Since you could get equities at good prices, it was a good time to do so and it still is in some cases.
ReplyDeleteIt might not have been popular on October 31 but it was the right investment to make. Whenever things are not going well in such a large economy as China's well, that's the time to buy.
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