‘Overweight’ offshore China equities is key theme of 2017, says CLSA’s Wood
Banks, commodity stocks and insurers are the key sectors to watch as outlook for corporate profitability improves and demand for raw materials picks up
Investors should take an “overweight” position in offshore Chinese equities this year, as supply-side reforms are putting the country’s economy firmly back on track, according to a leading analyst.
Christopher Wood, an equity strategist for CLSA, said government policies aimed at cutting excess capacity in core industries had helped the struggling corporate sector to improve profitability.
“The key thing in Asia is to overweight Chinese equities,” said Wood in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
The MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index, which tracks large- and mid-cap stocks within the region, has given a 24.8 per cent weighting to Chinese stocks, the highest in the index, according to data released by MSCI on February 1.
But Wood recommended investors further increase the weighting to 29 per cent of their stock portfolio for the region.
If the supply-side reform continues, it will create a virtuous cycle
Currently, MSCI’s stock indices only track Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies and B shares in the mainland that are denominated in foreign currencies and accessible to foreign investors. A shares, denominated in renminbi in the mainland, are not included in the MSCI indexes.