HEAD-TO-HEAD: Fidelity vs JP Morgan

FSA compares the Fidelity Thailand Fund and the JP Morgan Thailand Fund.

by Fund Selector Asia 3 August 20181 August 2022

Luke Ng, FE Advisory Asia

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.

MSCI indices performance for the Asean region

	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%

Source: FE, in US dollars.

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%

Source: FE

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