Asia Equities See Inflows Post FOMC, Tech Names Benefit The Most

• China equities closed slightly lower on Thursday, significantly underperforming Hong Kong equities. Despite the default by China Property Developer Radiance Holdings on their debt, the rally in the HS-listed Mainland Property Index continued. Meanwhile, a new US bill proposed in Congress aims to restrict US mutual funds from investing in certain products tracking Chinese stock indexes. The CSI300 is up 15% from last month's five-year low but faces resistance at the 200-day SMA. Northbound flows turned negative on Thursday, with a net outflow of -6.02 billion yuan, marking two of the largest outflows for the year in just the past three days. The 5-day average now sits at 1.13 billion yuan, below the 20-day average of 2.42 billion yuan.
• South Korean equities surged higher on Thursday, driven by a more dovish Fed, which spurred tech names higher. Foreign investor flows saw their biggest inflow since January 11th and the second-largest inflows since October 2021, with $1.678 billion entering the market. Earlier, SK PPI rose to 1.5% from 1.3% in January, while Thursday saw exports grow to 11.2% from -7.8% in February. The 5-day average is now $264 million, above the longer-term 20-day average at $140 million and the 100-day average at $164 million.
• Taiwan equities also benefited from the dovish Fed, with tech names receiving a boost, along with positive revenue guidance from Micron Technology. The Central Bank hiked interest rates to 2.00% from 1.875%, in line with consensus. The Taiex closed up 2.10%, while foreign equity flows turned positive after five days of outflows, with a net inflow of $529 million, taking the 5-day average to -$421 million compared to the 20-day at $137 million and the 100-day at $171 million.
• Thailand equities saw an inflow on Thursday after $1 billion in outflows the prior two days, although these outflows were expected to be from an institutional account leaving the region and being matched with domestic buyers due to the stability in the market. Averages are largely irrelevant due to these very large flows.

Table 1: EM Asia Equity Flows