Fidelity International yesterday said it would be overweight in Asian equities and bonds for the rest of the year, because they have been undervalued following panic capital outflows from Asia.
Asian equities generate much higher returns than stocks elsewhere in the world, with prices spiking 122.5 percent for the past 20 years, while dividend returns soared 165.8 percent, Ariel Lee (李祐慈), a fund manager at Fidelity International Taiwan, told a media briefing in Taipei.
US shares rose 74.5 percent during the same period, while dividend returns gained 73.7 percent, Lee said.
Results from European and Japanese equities were less impressive, she added.
“The data lend support to our belief that global funds have injudiciously cut Asian equities and bonds, driven by uncertainties over trade disputes and widening interest spreads following rate hikes in the US,” Lee said.
The investment management services provider is sticking to this strategy unless global tariff rows escalate beyond control and central banks embark on drastic monetary-tightening, she said.
Fidelity International expects the US Federal Reserve to raise its policy rates this month and in December.
It recommends a portfolio featuring 50 percent of bonds, 35 percent of equities and 15 percent of alternative tools to buffer market volatility.
“The large bond position reflects a cautiously optimistic view about the economic scenes,” Fidelity International Taiwan head of investment Peiling Chang (張翠玲) said.
The global economy remains on a course of expansion, although the cycle is likely at its end stage, Chang said.
Fears about a global financial crisis, which tends to strike every 10 years, also help drive global funds to take shelter in the US dollar, gold holdings and greenback-denominated assets, Chang said.
Multi-asset funds have proved effective in weathering market volatility due to their better risk diversification operations, she said.
That explains why such funds have become popular among Taiwanese investors, accounting for 10 percent of total fund holdings as of June, up from 9 percent three months earlier, she added.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”