The FSA Spy market buzz – 1 November 2024
Battleshares’ old versus new, Goldman Sachs’ Cassandra warning, Hong Kong property’s negative equity woes, Ninety One’s trillion-dollar question, Contrarian alert from CB, Lists and much more.
The year-to-date performance for the Asean equity market has been lacklustre. The MSCI Asean Index returned -5.63% in US dollar terms. Only Thailand and Malaysia delivered marginal positive returns.
YTD return |
3-year return |
|
Thailand |
0.23% |
44.01% |
Indonesia |
-14.72% |
20.11% |
Singapore |
-4.73% |
15.54% |
Malaysia |
0.05% |
6.45% |
Philippines |
-14.29% |
-8.63% |
Asean |
-5.63% |
16.32% |
Focusing on Thailand, Luke Ng, senior vice president at FE Advisory Asia, said the market should continue to outperform the broader market in the near future.
As Thailand’s economy is less related to external trade with the US or China, the market tends to be less impacted by global trade tensions, he said.
Moreover, the country reports a current account surplus of roughly 10% of GDP and historically high foreign reserves, making Thailand’s assets more resilient to pressure from a strengthening US dollar, Ng said.
He believes economic growth will be robust as Thailand remains a popular hub for tourism across the region.
Another support to the local economy is domestic consumption. Consumer sentiment is slowly returning since the one-year mourning period for the late king ended last October, he added.
Against this backdrop, FSA asked Ng to provide a comparative analysis of two Thailand equity products: The Fidelity Thailand Fund and JP Morgan Thailand Fund.
Fidelity Thailand Fund | JP Morgan Thailand Fund | |
Size | $347m | $321.3m |
Inception | 1 October 1990 | 8 August 1989 |
Manager | Madeleine Kuang | Isaac Thong, Chate Benchavitvilai, Pauline Ng |
FE Crown Fund Rating | *** | ***** |
Fees (OCF) | 1.95% | 1.68% |
Battleshares’ old versus new, Goldman Sachs’ Cassandra warning, Hong Kong property’s negative equity woes, Ninety One’s trillion-dollar question, Contrarian alert from CB, Lists and much more.
Part of the Mark Allen Group.