Consumption counters top bet in Asia

SINGAPORE: Movies, malls, meals and medicines. If the best-performing stocks from each of Asia’s 10 main markets outside Japan are any guide, then 2015 belonged to companies that catered to consumption.

Not conspicuous, over-the-top gambling binges in Macau or splurging on expensive cars in Shanghai or Singapore, but small-ticket, largely middle-class spending: Think of the winners’ club as 10 separate tea leaves, each of which carries a little flavour of a single Asian market. When taken together though, the leaves make for an interesting pattern.