Investors buy, then bide time on China
Nearly 1/3 of Asia fund managers are buyers - BofA survey
Fiscal stimulus seen as trigger for further gains
Tech sector preferred
By Tom Westbrook, Dhara Ranasinghe and Naomi Rovnick
SINGAPORE/LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) -Global investors are buying China and betting last month's rally has legs, but few are willing to go large until there are far more concrete signs that the economy and earnings will improve.
The sentiment shift has been fast and furious, spurring billions of investor cash that had been diverted to India and Japan rushing back to bring China exposures from near record lows towards neutral or market-weight.
In just a month, the proportion of Asia fund managers building exposure in China jumped from 8% to 31%, according to a Bank of America survey published in mid-October,and the percentage of managers looking outside China for opportunities collapsed by a similar margin.
Yet markets have already pulled back 10% from the rally's highs thus far and third-quarter gross domestic product data on Friday showed the economy grew at the slowest pace since early 2023, leaving investors preparing to wait it out.
"The real crux of a second-leg higher in shares is if the government is able to stimulate consumer demand," said Willem Sels, global chief investment officer at HSBC Global Private Banking and Wealth.
"We think there will be more details coming through and the market is looking for a number on the size of fiscal stimulus to get excited. If we get that, then there is more room for another rise in stocks. We are still neutral."
China no longer publishes timely data showing money moving in and out of its equity markets but ebbing turnover and momentum point to investors giving the latest stimulus efforts the benefit of the doubt.
Cash that poured into U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds that invest in China has mostly stayed there, after the initial rush.
"People are still observing - there's no immediate profit-taking positions," said Henry Wu, head of Xtrackers U.S. products at DWS in New York, where the Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 ASHR.N has drawn more than $2.2 billion in inflows since late September. "Investors are here to wait and see."
'BETTER LATE THAN WRONG'
Foreigners say that tech and e-commerce companies are attractive, with the latter exposed to improvement in consumption and offering a margin of safety in being both relatively cheap and generating a lot of cash.
"They were penalised for several years both for reality and perception reasons about government policies and regulations," said Nate Thooft, CIO for multi-asset at Manulife Investment Management.
"But our impression is that this time around China policymakerswant tohelp the market, and I think they're going to be less restrictive and ... some of the gap in valuation between equivalent country companies in the tech space could close."
Most are leaving real estate, where one-time powerhouse developers are cheap and swing wildly, to bolder speculators.
To be sure, there are plenty of investors wary of geopolitical risks or China's regulatory rollercoaster who have walked away from the mainland markets for good andothers who are sceptical about how strongly the economy can rebound.
Still, the mood has moved from aversion to China's stock market to watching, waiting, and gradually buying.
"We are not speculators, we are building an investment case," said Benjamin Melman, chief investment officer at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, which has held a neutral position on China for more than a year.
"It is better to be late than wrong."
China economy snapshot https://reut.rs/48aIbWG
Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe, Naomi Rovnick and Alun John in London; Writing and additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill
آخر الأخبار
إخلاء المسؤولية: تتيح كيانات XM Group خدمة تنفيذية فقط والدخول إلى منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت، مما يسمح للشخص بمشاهدة و/أو استخدام المحتوى المتاح على موقع الويب أو عن طريقه، وهذا المحتوى لا يراد به التغيير أو التوسع عن ذلك. يخضع هذا الدخول والاستخدام دائماً لما يلي: (1) الشروط والأحكام؛ (2) تحذيرات المخاطر؛ (3) إخلاء المسؤولية الكامل. لذلك يُقدم هذا المحتوى على أنه ليس أكثر من معلومات عامة. تحديداً، يرجى الانتباه إلى أن المحتوى المتاح على منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت ليس طلباً أو عرضاً لدخول أي معاملات في الأسواق المالية. التداول في أي سوق مالي به مخاطرة عالية برأس مالك.
جميع المواد المنشورة على منصة تداولنا مخصصة للأغراض التعليمية/المعلوماتية فقط ولا تحتوي - ولا ينبغي اعتبار أنها تحتوي - على نصائح أو توصيات مالية أو ضريبية أو تجارية، أو سجلاً لأسعار تداولنا، أو عرضاً أو طلباً لأي معاملة في أي صكوك مالية أو عروض ترويجية مالية لا داعي لها.
أي محتوى تابع للغير بالإضافة إلى المحتوى الذي أعدته XM، مثل الآراء، والأخبار، والأبحاث، والتحليلات والأسعار وغيرها من المعلومات أو روابط مواقع تابعة للغير وواردة في هذا الموقع تُقدم لك "كما هي"، كتعليق عام على السوق ولا تعتبر نصيحة استثمارية. يجب ألا يُفسر أي محتوى على أنه بحث استثماري، وأن تلاحظ وتقبل أن المحتوى غير مُعدٍ وفقاً للمتطلبات القانونية المصممة لتعزيز استقلالية البحث الاستثماري، وبالتالي، فهو بمثابة تواصل تسويقي بموجب القوانين واللوائح ذات الصلة. فضلاً تأكد من أنك قد قرأت وفهمت الإخطار بالبحوث الاستثمارية غير المستقلة والتحذير من مخاطر المعلومات السابقة، والذي يمكنك الاطلاع عليه هنا.
