MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.2 percent, hovering near a 17-month low struck the previous day. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.8 percent, Australian shares <.AXJO> lost 0.3 percent and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.9 percent. The focus in Asia again turned towards how Chinese stocks would fare later in the session, with a series of increasingly aggressive attempts by authorities so far having failed to stem the massive exodus from a once booming market. (An AFP picture shows Investors sitting in front of a screen showing market movements in a stock firm in Hangzhou, eastern China's Zhejiang province on July 8, 2015)
AFTER lagging behind the wider region since 2013’s taper tantrum, South-East Asian stocks are poised to start outperforming their peers.
That’s the view from Morgan Stanley and Nomura Holdings Inc in research notes released on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
A completion of cyclical gains in earnings of technology and commodity companies, only modest dollar strength versus Asian currencies and a small deterioration in sentiment in China will benefit Asean markets over the next few months, according to Japan’s biggest brokerage.
The “dovish tightening” by the Federal Reserve is supportive of emerging-market currencies in general, providing a reprieve to South-East Asian equities, the US bank said.
“Structurally, Asean’s economies do appear better placed to deliver on growth than those in North Asia,” Mixo Das, an equity strategist at Nomura in Singapore, wrote in the note. “A further rotation into emerging markets from development markets and a long-term compression of the EM vs DM valuation gap should also prove supportive.”
The MSCI Asean index has rallied 9.7% this year, trailing a 12% advance in the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Excluding Japan Index. The Asean gauge fell 22% over the four years through the end of 2016, compared with an 8.5% decline in the wider Asian measure.
The Philippines has the “cheapest” stock market in the region and is expected to outperform in 2017 as earnings outlook improves and clarity on tax reforms could help boost consumption among the middle class, Nomura’s Das said.
Indonesia is also rated overweight, while Malaysia and Singapore are both seen to underperform. Das has a hold rating on Thailand.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley sees the Fed’s stance on US rate increases as supportive of emerging market currencies with Indonesia as the key beneficiary, equity strategists Sean Gardiner and Aarti Shah wrote in the note.
Malaysia was the next preferred market, followed by Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. - Bloomberg
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