Asia Equity Markets See Outflows As Foreign Investors Take Profit

• China equities saw their largest northbound inflow since July 2023, as markets surged higher with the CSI300 up 1.91%, in signs that policy support may be changing market sentiment. It had been reported that China was banning some Quant strategies and that they had banned a top performing quant manager from trading for a year. Flows are gaining momentum with 16.6b yuan of inflows yesterday with the 5-day average now 5.75b, while the 20-day average is 3.66b.
• South Korean equities were lower on Thursday, largely due to moves lower in the US and tech names globally after such a stellar run of late. Flows remain positive although momentum is slowing with $184m of inflows, while the 5-day average sits at $160m, while 20-day is at $306m.
• Taiwan equities were back from their break yesterday, trading 0.60% higher led higher by hardware names. While GDP was lower at 4.93% vs 5.10% expected, however projects the economy will rebound quickly as global demand for AI related technologies spur growth higher. Just 3.1m flowed into Taiwan equities on Thursday, with the 5-day average now $226m vs the 20-day average at $250m
• Indonesian again saw outflows marking the 4th of 5 day of negative flow, BI Deputy Gov said they wont be cutting rates yet due to high global uncertainty and rupiah volatility. The 5-day average is -$47m, while the 20-day is at $38m.
• Thailand saw their largest outflow since Jan 17th of $21m of -$120m, while markets were 0.80% lower. Current account Balance swung to a deficit on high gold imports, while factory output contracts fell for a 16th straight month. The 5-day average is now -$24m, while the 20-day is at $4.1m.

Table 1: EM Asia Equity Flows