Jul. 16 – Asian investors are looking beyond China and considering investments in emerging markets in Southeast Asia, says an ING Investor Dashboard survey.
The survey reflects dampening enthusiasm on China with the Greater China sentiment index dropping by 14 percent to 127 during the second quarter of the year compared to Southeast Asian stock sentiment rising by 3 percent to 141. Investors are aware that Chinese authorities are implementing credit tightening measures.
“The Asian investor is more attuned to what is happening in other Asian markets,” said Grant Bailey, regional general manager with ING Investment Management in Hong Kong said in a statement. “If you don’t have great returns coming out of the traditional G7 or G3 markets, you will go to where the returns are.”
The survey, conducted last month, compiled answers from 3,792 rich investors from 12 Asia Pacific markets that include China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and Australia. Investor sentiment score range from 0 meaning the least optimistic to 200 as the most optimistic.
Political changes seem to affect investor confidence in the survey. The Philippines had the highest rise in investor confidence after it swore in popular new President Benigno Aquino III. Australia dropped by the widest margin due to the ouster of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Philippine equities reported two and a half year highs while Indonesia’s stocks were close to record highs. So far, the Indonesia, Philippine and Thai stock markets have registered double-digit returns this year.
