FPP Asset Management LLP, manager of the second-best performing Taiwan fund this year, said the country’s equities were no longer “compelling” and has reduced its investments in that market.
The benchmark TAIEX Index has gained 57 percent since last year’s low on Nov. 20, valuing its 702 stocks at an average of 26 times estimated earnings this year, the highest in Asia excluding Japan. Valuations surged as improving ties between Taiwan and China raised prospects for investments from Chinese companies and increased trade.
“Taiwan no longer looks as compelling as it did,” Jonathan Neill, director at London-based FPP Asset Management, said in e-mailed comments late yesterday. “Cross-straits [sic] is mainly hot air and it is getting the locals excited, which is always a worry.”
FPP Asset’s Yellow Tiger Taiwan Fund had an 82 percent return this year as of May 29, compared with the 50 percent gain on the TAIEX index. That made Yellow Tiger the second-best performer among 399 Taiwan-focused funds tracked by Bloomberg.
FPP Asset reduced its holdings of Taiwan stocks to 17 percent from more than 20 percent of its portfolio, Neill said. Taiwan stocks have an 11.6 percent weighting on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, he said.
The fund increased holdings of South Korean equities as they are more “modestly valued,” he said.
The benchmark KOSPI Index trades at 14.3 times estimated earnings for this eyar.
Taiwan and China will hold their fifth round of cooperation talks next month in Changsha, Hunan Province, a statement on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Web site said.
The TAIEX has fallen 5.5 percent so far this week, heading for its biggest weekly decline this year.
Taiwan’s stock market has a “unique cross-strait story that other emerging markets don’t have,” Pearlyn Wong, an investment analyst at Bank Julius Baer Singapore Ltd, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“That said, in the short term, it will probably consolidate more,” Wong said.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
RSS