Chinese stocks get ‘shot in the arm’ from stimulus moves, HSBC survey says

The latest effort by Chinese officials to stimulate the economy ‘seems to resonate with emerging-market investors’, analysts say

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People walk in front of a large screen displaying stock data in Shanghai on March 11, 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:16pm, 1 Apr 2025

Emerging-market investors are bullish on China, citing confidence that policy stimuli will boost economic activity and make the country’s equities more favourable, according to a survey.

Forty-five per cent of investors believed a strong rebound in mainland China was the biggest upside factor in the emerging-market outlook, according to HSBC’s Emerging Markets Sentiment Survey for March. That number was higher than 29 per cent in the previous survey in December.

The survey polled 126 investors from 125 institutions, representing US$439 billion of assets under management in emerging markets, between January 24 and March 12.

“Investors are upbeat on China’s growth prospects,” analysts led by Murat Ulgen, HSBC’s global head of emerging markets research, said in the report. “The latest set of announcements from Chinese officials to stimulate the economy also seems to resonate with emerging-market investors.”

In addition, investors said that the stimulus measures would positively impact both the short- and long-term horizons. The steps were “highly likely” or “somewhat likely” to achieve China’s economic targets in three to 12 months, according to 48 per cent of those surveyed. The same percentage said the impact would last over the longer term.

During the mainland’s “two sessions” meetings that wrapped up in early March, China’s top economic officials laid out priorities for 2025. These included cutting interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio for commercial banks to support the economy amid the US trade war, feeding the tech sector with capital and talent, and boosting consumption. The world’s second-largest economy has set a gross domestic product growth target of around 5 per cent for this year.

Among emerging-market economies, China was the top choice in the survey to achieve the biggest growth acceleration over the next 12 months, selected by a quarter of respondents.