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.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
RSS